The European Court of Auditors has identified a number of shortcomings in the sustainable urban mobility plans for 431 urban areas in the EU, which compromise their effectiveness, according to a report published on Wednesday 4 February.
The Court concluded that the European Commission’s sustained efforts have improved the EU’s legal framework for urban mobility, in particular because it now requires the development of these sustainable urban mobility plans. Since 2014, over €35 billion has been allocated from cohesion policy funds, supplemented more recently by €23 billion from the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ and additional support from the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’.
However, commuter flows and the level of ambition in terms of changing travel habits to avoid car use have not been sufficiently taken into account. Carlo Alberto Manfredi Selvaggi, the member of the Court responsible for the audit, identified problems with the geographical scope of the mobility plans. “Many plans stop at administrative borders and fail to cover all relevant commuter flows. This limits their effectiveness and often stems from weak coordination between neighbouring municipalities”, he explained at a press conference. “Content-wise, most plans focus on improving accessibility of public transport and reducing emissions, while measures to actively discourage driving are less common”.
He felt that both types of measure were necessary to achieve sustainable mobility. “Restricting the number of parking spaces or access to city centres without providing adequate public transport is not a viable solution”, he said. As a result, few projects have significantly improved the situation of commuters, often due to inadequate needs analysis or a lack of coordination between neighbouring municipalities.
The Court therefore recommends that the Commission strengthen its support to Member States, in particular through the creation of a single information point, providing additional guidance on land use planning, and shared mobility in suburban areas. It also recommends developing a common model share indicator and a robust methodology for measuring emissions reductions.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/kl2 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)