Brussels, 13/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - Transport Commissioner, Jacques Barrot, had a first exchange of views with the European Parliament transport committee on 11 July, regarding the White Paper mid-term review of European transport policy for 2001-2010. Given the reactions of the Greens during the presentation of this review (EUROPE 9217), we should have been in for a stormy debate but this did not in fact prove to be the case. Overall, MEPs were very pleased but a significant number of them asked Mr Barrot for explanations about his new “co-modality' concept. Several of them also called for the Commission to take a tougher stance with Member States that were failing to implement existing regulation and launch infringement proceedings against them if necessary.
Speaking on behalf of the EPP-ED group, Georg Jarzembowski from Germany said, “I haven't understood your co-modality concept very well”. Sceptical about the Commission's idea of integrating the aviation sector into the EU emissions trading mechanism, which he sees as a way of “filling ministers of finance's pockets” more than anything else, the CDU MEP called on the Commission to focus on putting pressure on Member States instead, so that they could implement Community regulation on the “single European sky”. Brandishing the sacrosanct principle of subsidiarity, Mr Jarzembowski called on Mr Barrot to take a cautious approach to urban transport (the Commission envisages a Green paper on the subject in 2007: Editor's note). He warned that “My group is sceptical” about the underpinning and too narrow rules in this area.
Willi Piecyk from Germany spoke for the Socialists and also deplored the shortcomings in implementation of the European legislation, particularly in the area of railways and asked, as had a number of other MEPs beforehand, for Mr Barrot to take Member States committing infringements, to court. Erik Meijer from the GUE/NGL group (Netherlands) affirmed, “you should be more pro-active than your predecessors on (modes) of ecological transport” because the promotion of EURO 5 lorries, “is all well and good” but the Commission has to do more to promote rail and maritime transport.
Dirck Sterckx from Belgium (ALDE) regretted, “When I read some of the review, I noticed that the approach (of the White Paper) had not worked”, adding, “we are almost at the same point as we were five years ago”. Highlighting the need to focus on efficiency of environmental solutions in the developments of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), Michael Cramer from Germany speaking for the Greens/EFA called on Mr Barrot to “find a concept of priorities” among the 30 projects selected in 2004 “as we cannot trust the Council (of the EU) where national egoism prevails”.
Several other MEPs, including Spanish Socialist Ines Ayala Sender asked the Commission to take into account external costs before presenting its methodology (expected in June 2008) on setting tariffs for infrastructure. Ayala also wanted more ambitious action for improving road safety. French Socialist Robert Navarro is the only one to have expressed concern about “the Commission's new orientation that abandoned certain objectives” in the 2001 White Paper, notably that of modal transfer, which had now been “relegated to a secondary rank”.
Mr Barrot provided assurances to sceptical MEPs that “we have made progress” (citing the Euro-vignette directive, the agreement on the European driving licence and the more recent public service obligations) but acknowledged that the White Paper had “still not borne fruit”. The Commissioner again rejected the accusation of having abandoned the modal transfer objective of 2001, “I want modal transfer to progress”. In his explanation on “co-modality” he pointed out that, “when we get into a lorry or train, it's co-modality…We can no longer think that a mode of transport is autonomous. The different modes of transport are complementary”.
The Commissioner does not intend to rush into a presentation of his methodology for internalising external infrastructure tariffs, “the new Euro-vignette”. He explained that, “I will meet my commitment in June 2008. We need a very safe methodology, as Member States will try to catch me out” and if the methodology is not good, “they'll push for the adoption of the new Euro-vignette again”. The Commissioner also announced that the report on funding new civil aviation safety measures, which MEPs had demanded for ages, would be finished “at the end of the month”.