Brussels, 23/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - The appropriate measures to improve air quality in Europe should be defined, implemented, applied and monitored in the framework of a dialogue with regional and local authorities and with EU citizens. It is, then, at local and regional levels that the measures proposed to limit the environmental impact of vehicle traffic must be put into practice. Encouraging the use of environmentally friendly vehicles is in line with regional and local authorities' objective of reducing energy consumption and reducing also air pollution. This is what the Committee of the Regions (CoR) says in opinion on the promotion of clean road transport vehicles. The opinion, the rapporteur for which was Ewa-May Karlsson (ALDE, Sweden), was adopted at the CoR June plenary session.
As for measures to promote clean road transport vehicles, the CoR welcomed the increase in investment in biofuels and noted that an increase in European production levels of bioethanol and biodiesel, as a replacement for traditional petrol and diesel, would have several benefits, because this would: (1) reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport; (2) safeguard energy supplies as oil reserves dwindle; (3) offer the EU's agricultural and forestry sectors opportunities to grow crops and produce raw material for the manufacture of biofuels; and (4) provide developing countries with an opportunity to export biofuels to the EU.