The Spanish Presidency of the EU Council, which began on Saturday 1 July, has set out its transport priorities in its programme. “Mobility will be promoted as a universal right, one that is an essential precursor to access other rights such as those to housing, work, education and health”, it said.
According to the programme, Spain believes that the EU’s transport policy contributes to the functioning of the single market and is an essential aspect of territorial structuring and cross-border communication. Challenges remain, including decarbonising the sector, configuring a sustainable, intelligent (see EUROPE 13210/43) and resilient mobility system and developing the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). Given that little progress was made on this matter under the Swedish Presidency (see EUROPE 13213/15), the Spanish Presidency has given assurances that it will strive to “achieve the greatest possible progress” on this issue, which is “an essential element of social and territorial cohesion”.
It will work to align the policies of the main international transport organisations, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), with those of the European Union. It hopes to make progress on the Single European Sky (SES2+) initiative, which is “crucial to competitiveness and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the European aviation sector” (see EUROPE 13194/7).
The Presidency will also have to make progress on dossiers recently presented by the European Commission, such as the maritime safety package (see EUROPE 13209/26) and the road safety package (see EUROPE 13211/22). “The Spanish Presidency will seek to strengthen cooperation and the exchange of good practices among the Member States”, it said, hoping to achieve “a sustained reduction in the rate of traffic accidents, and ultimately reach zero deaths by 2050”.
Read the Spanish Presidency’s programme: https://aeur.eu/f/7v4 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)