On Tuesday 26 January, the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) held a meeting with the Portuguese Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, to discuss Portugal’s priorities in these two areas for the next five months.
Nuno Santos said he wanted to reach a political agreement (‘general approach’) of the EU Council on two dossiers: - on one hand, the revision of the directive on theuse of vehicles hired without drivers in road transport and on the other; - the revision of the ‘SES2+’ initiative on the implementation of the Single European Sky (see EUROPE 12565/1 ) and the basic regulation of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
On the first dossier, the last attempt at a compromise was made under the Croatian Presidency (see EUROPE 12504/14).
On the second, discussions started last December (see EUROPE 12617/15). In this respect, the Minister denied rumours that Lisbon would consider working separately on the revision of the ‘SES2+ initiative and the EASA review.
Mr Nuno Santos also indicated that he wants to reach an agreement with the European Parliament on the delicate issue of the ‘Eurovignette’ before the end of his Presidency. A first interinstitutional meeting will be devoted to it this Friday (see EUROPE 12637/10).
Lastly, the minister reiterated his desire to implement theEuropean Year of Rail (see EUROPE 12601/11). On this point, MEP Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg (Greens/EFA, Germany), rapporteur on the text, called on him to “take very seriously” the question of contact points and to consult each Member State to find out who is the competent person.
Furthermore, the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques, who also took part in the discussion, announced that an informal meeting of tourism ministers would be held on 1 March and gave the MEPs some details on the draft conclusions put forward by Lisbon on reviving the sector (see EUROPE 12640/21). (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)