Brussels, 15/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Modest, realist but nevertheless ambitious and voluntary: this is the approach to be adopted by Isabelle Durant, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister responsible for Transport, when she will takeover the reigns of the Transport Council next 1 July. Faced with a large number of issues to be tackled, Mrs Durant will try to finalise a certain number of leading dossiers whose finalisation is necessary to lay new tracks on the path to "sustainable mobility". Presenting to the press the priorities of the future Belgian Presidency, Mrs Durant, recalled that the Community transport policy had for a long-time been broached under the angle of liberalisation and harmonisation and asserted that her action aimed to integrate the environmental and social dimensions. This action is be part of the extension of the policy lead by Belgium, where the mobility plan presented last September places emphasis on an integrated policy, and not mode by mode, which works on the supply and not only the demand of transport, she stated. Three main axes will be favoured by the Belgian Presidency: environmental protection, improvement of security and the adopting of better working conditions for professionals in the sector.
Among the forty-five "transport" dossiers that the Council will have to tackle in the second half of this year, Mrs Durant decided to privilege around twenty "leading dossiers" which form part of the scope of the three priority axes of the Presidency: 1. Environment: - continuation of the works on the Erika II "package" and, to the extent that the Commission texts are available: promotion of combined transport; harmonisation of standards to measure noise around airports; promotion of inland water navigation. 2. Security: introduction of speed limits for lightweight utility vehicles; 3rd action programme for road safety; and, if necessary, finalisation of works by the Swedish Presidency relating to the creation of the European Civil Aviation Safety Agency. 3. Working conditions: if necessary, continuation of work by Swedish Presidency on fight against unfair competition due to social dumping of third country drivers and over the training of professional drivers; if the proposals by the Commission are available, examination of the driving time and rest time of drivers and the draft Directive relating to road checks (electronic tachographs). Moreover, if a solution is brought to the problem of the Gibraltar airport, the single European sky and other aviation dossiers could also be tackled, added Mrs Durant.
Furthermore, she said that she intends organising a joint Transport/Environment Council in Leuven/Louvain la Neuve from 14 to 16 September. This Council would be preceded, on 12 July, by a seminar on the relationship between transport and economic growth. Another high-level seminar dedicated to road safety will be organised on 8 November. It will be followed on 20 and 21 November in Brussels by the Annual rail freight states-general.
Finally, Mrs Durant recalled that her Presidency should lead two fundamental debates for the future of EU transport policy, namely the debate around the White Paper on transports announced for the month of June and that concerning the revision of the guidelines for the transeuropean networks. She also underlined the importance on the continuation of negotiation on the transport chapter in the framework of enlargement and the true starting of Galileo in December. Finally, she said that the role of Belgium would be to mobilise the other Member States during the international negotiations that will take place at the end of September and beginning October within the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to define environmental standards applicable to aircraft in terms of noise and atmospheric pollution.