The Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, gave an update, on Tuesday 15 March, to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport on the major issues to come in the course of the year.
“We will focus on Ukraine for a while, but we will also have to work on our priorities”, she said.
Among the issues that will be on the table in 2022, Ms Vălean announced that the Commission would continue its work on its “CountEmissions EU’ project, which is intended to define a common framework for the calculation and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger and freight transport.
The Commissioner also announced that she would present “in the course of the year” a ‘maritime package’ based on three pillars. The first of these should be used to address Flag State Control, the second to address Port State Control and the last to address accident risk mitigation.
“For flag State control, there is a need for harmonisation at European level for maritime administrative bodies. We are considering new measures for more polluting ships. And we are considering more frequent inspections”, she said.
In addition, the Commission is expected to present, “later this year” a proposal to make it easier for citizens to buy tickets combining several means of transport.
In addition, part of the future work should focus on road safety. On this point, the Commissioner for Transport indicated that, in the course of the year and in line with the public consultation on the revision of the driving licence directive (see EUROPE 12594/31), consideration would be given to better training for drivers, digital licences and consideration of ‘zero emission’.
Among the members of the Parliament’s Committee on Transport, while Ms Vălean’s presentation was generally welcomed, some MEPs, such as Vera Tax (S&D, Netherlands), called for greater consideration to be given to railways, particularly as an alternative to some short air links. On air transport, Irish MEP Ciarán Cuffe (Greens/EFA) regretted that the issue of airport slots - which sometimes lead some airlines to fly empty or almost empty - was not raised.
Finally, the European Commissioner also returned to the various dossiers inherent in the transport sector in the framework of the ‘Fit for 55’ package, presented by the Commission in July 2021.
On this dossier, which includes the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure for vehicles (see EUROPE 12910/18) and the deployment of alternative fuels in air (see EUROPE 12903/17) and maritime transport (see EUROPE 12892/33), Ms Vălean expressed her hope that progress would be made “quickly”, both in the EU Council and in the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)