The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, which began on Monday 1 July, wants to promote better connectivity, both by extending European networks geographically and by creating better links between modes of transport, as well as greening and improving transport safety, according to its programme.
“Improving connectivity, extending transport networks North-South and creating new intermodal hubs will contribute to economic development, it may result in improving transport links and economic integration between regions”, it has said. According to Hungary, these measures will also help to improve the competitiveness of transport, which will have a positive impact on industrial development and on the demographic challenges of rural depopulation.
The Presidency has scheduled an informal ministerial meeting on transport for Thursday 19 and Friday 20 September in Budapest. It will focus on improving connectivity with the Western Balkans.
Greening freight and road safety on the agenda
A number of files are on the Presidency’s plate. It will therefore resume negotiations within the Council on the revised regulations on passenger rights (Omnibus regulation) and on the regulation on multimodal passenger rights (see EUROPE 13434/34). Further discussion will be needed on reimbursement times, which vary considerably from one mode of transport to another. Work on the rights of people with disabilities and people with reduced mobility must also continue.
Two directives included in the ‘greening freight’ package still need to be discussed by the delegations: the directive on combined freight transport and the directive on the weights and dimensions of certain road vehicles (see EUROPE 13435/10). Fears about the impact of the proposed measures on road infrastructure were not allayed at the last Council meeting in June.
The Presidency will also have to begin negotiations (‘trilogues’) with the European Parliament. With regard to the greening of freight, Hungary will be able to discuss with the European Parliament the new regulation on the use of rail capacity (see EUROPE 13434/3) and the ‘EU count emission’ regulation, which includes a common methodological approach enabling companies to calculate their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (see EUROPE 13389/20). It will also be able to start discussing the revised River Information Services (RIS) Directive (see EUROPE 13434/2).
Finally, Hungary will resume discussions on the road safety package, which includes the revision of the directive on driving licences and the directive on driving disqualifications. Several Member States want to link the two texts, which will require some work with the new European Parliament (see EUROPE 13435/12).
Read the Hungary programme: https://aeur.eu/f/crs (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)