With the end of the year approaching, European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean gave an update on Tuesday 29 November to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport on the current and upcoming dossiers for 2023.
As work continues in Parliament and the Council of the EU on the various parts of the ‘Fit for 55’ package (see EUROPE 13060/6), Mrs Vălean announced that the Commission would continue to work, in the transport sector, on reducing CO2 emissions and greening the various modes of transport.
Measures should therefore be proposed “early this year” to ensure that emissions from the freight transport sector are better taken into account, she said.
There should also be an initiative to allow consumers to compare the emissions of different types of transport so that they can “make choices”. This initiative should, among other things, result in a “more user-friendly” methodology. In addition, another initiative should also be launched to help the green transition of companies’ vehicle fleets.
Part of the Commission’s forthcoming proposals will focus on rail transport and inter-modality. The Commission is expected to present measures to promote long-distance cross-border rail transport at the beginning of the year.
In addition, work will also be carried out on the qualification and training of drivers to make rail services more reliable. This, the EU Commissioner argued, could have a leverage effect and push up demand. Therefore, the Commission should also propose measures to support intermodal transport.
In this respect, work will also be carried out on the issue of passenger rights in all types of transport, with a focus on strengthening them in times of crisis.
“The current framework for infrastructure capacity, traffic management and intermodal coordination is no longer adequate, we need to have more flexibility and design other projects”, Mrs Vălean detailed.
Changes should be proposed regarding vehicle registration documents. Work will also be carried out on the Regulation on driving time, driving licences and the exchange of information on safety and road traffic offences.
The year 2023 will see the Commission propose a text on the European mobility data space. “We want to open up access to data, but we also want to share data to support multimodal and sustainable mobility”, Mrs Vălean stressed. This data space, which could take the form of “a framework for collecting data that is currently difficult to access”, will be dealt with in a separate text.
Finally, a revision of the maritime safety Directive should be proposed, including the issue of ship registration, controls and investigations. The revision of the mandate of the European Maritime Safety Agency should be proposed in 2023. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)