Brussels, 09/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday in Brussels, the Greens/EFA group organised a conference on the following theme, "Alpine Convention and Sustainable Transport Policy in the Sensitive Regions", in order to provide MEPs and experts the opportunity to present the variety of different concrete measures to take a Community level for protecting the Alps and the zones that are often described as "sensitive". In order to draw the public's attention to the problem, a "New Beautiful Alps" exhibition will be presented to the European Parliament on 27-31 January. (See EUROPE 21 December p 17 on the subject of the plenary on mountain policy).
Austrian Green, Eva Lichtenberger considers that the matter is urgent, "Measures are necessary with regard to all the Alps and that they focus on two pillar: the Alpine convention and its Protocol, as well as the Commission's White Paper on transport", she declared while setting out the possible measures: 1) introduction of fiscal measures with regard to heavy goods vehicles and use of the network for developing railway infrastructures in an effort to fight against pollution and noise; 2) optimise existing infrastructure and avoid building new roads; 3) allow Member States certain competences for banning heavy goods vehicle during the night, weeks end and holidays, as well as the transport of some goods and speed limits; 4) prioritise hazardous goods by rail; 5) put an end to social dumping and carry out strict and regular inspections, as well as applying regulation on rest times for self-employed hauliers.
German Green argued vigorously for the ratification of the Alpine Convention, which would prove that the European Union was taking the problems of its inhabitants into account. "People living in Alpine valleys suffer from a much stronger concentration of polluting emissions and are exposed to much higher noise levels". Italian MEP for the Alto Adige, Reinhold Messner, requested a ban on lorry traffic in the sensitive Alpine regions during the night and weekends and that the EU had to "make a U-turn in its transport policies". Andreas Weissen, President of CIPRA said that the Alpine Convention Transport Protocol, which entered into force on 18 December 2002 was a real step forward in this field because it is binding, as opposed to the Alpine Convention (entered into force in 1995). However, he regretted that only Lichtenstein, Austria and Germany had so far ratified the Protocol, concluding that "it is absolutely necessary that other contractual parties, including the EU, act likewise". Responding to this issue, Dirck Van Vreckem, Head of Unit at the Transport and Energy Directorate at the European Commission, indicated that this had been a proposal made to the Council a long time ago and which aimed to sign and ratify the Protocol but the latter had proved less than enthusiastic about it. Mr Van Vreckem explained that only four Member States out of fifteen would be affected by this protocol, which explained the lack of pressure to make it into a priority. However, Mr Van Vreckem underlined that the Commission would not be waiting to take additional measures with regard to Alpine traffic and that it was going to present a proposal this year that aimed to set up an infrastructure tariff system for all modes of transport. "The Commission is going to present a document in a few weeks on the method to apply when internalising the external costs of transport modes, so that a legislative proposal can be presented half way through 2003", he explained. Markus Liechti from the European Transport and Environment Federation was of the opinion that they should not restrict themselves to the Alps because the problem also involved other sensitive zones, All EU countries are affected by this problem, which have an environmental and health impact everywhere", he explained. This view was shared by Günther Hörmandinger from the Environment Directorate at the Commission, who believed that the problem of transit could only be overcome at a global level. Mr Hörmandinger explained that transit was economically advantageous to all the EU but had negative effects for only part of it. Mr Hörmandinger also added that a European study was being devised for defining the concept of "sensitive zones" that could be applicable to the whole of the EU and determining what instruments could be used.
Protests against Danish compromise extending ecopoints system
With regard to the Transport Council conclusions of 31 December (see EUROPE 3 January p 3), Eva Lichtengerger declared that the fight between the EU and Austria over the ecopoints system focused on the putting into practice of what had been promised in the accession treaty and warned that the "Danish Presidency's proposal is not acceptable". Quoting the results of a study by the University of Grasse, she declared that the results were encouraging from an environmental point of view, with regard to emissions of harmful substances by some lorries but had been used to justify the Danish proposal, which had not been proved. "We were able to see that this worked in the laboratory but not on the ground", she explained indicating that Euro 2 and 3 lorries according to the study were barely cleaner than Euro 1 and 4 lorries. This information was confirmed by Mr Van Vreckem, who indicated that new tests were being developed.