The Community of European Railways (CER) and the NGO network Transport & Environment (T&E) have welcomed the commitment of Ursula von der Leyen, President-elect of the European Commission, to pursue the objectives set out in the ‘European Green Deal’, in press releases published on Thursday 18 July (see EUROPE 13456/1).
For Alberto Mazzola, Executive Director of the CER, the next Commission’s programme “provides the right continuity with the ambitions of the past legislature, but also new tools to address the challenges that Europe is facing today and will face in the years to come”. “European cohesion, competitiveness and resilience need railways”, he added.
For its part, T&E warns that maintaining the ‘zero emissions’ target for cars in 2035 is “critical to providing certainty for battery investments currently at risk”. “Spending years designing a policy framework for niche e-fuels is a distraction from the monumental task to secure clean and competitive EV supply chains”, judged Julia Poliscanova, Senior Director for vehicles & E-mobility supply chains. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)