Brussels, 08/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption on Tuesday (31 votes to 4 with no abstentions) of the own-initiative report by Etelka Barsi-Pataki, Hungarian Christian Democrat, the European Parliament Transport Committee supported the Commission's pragmatic approach expressed in the mid-term review of the 2001 Transport White Paper in the run-up to 2010. As far as financing is concerned, by adopting the report on a Europe in movement and sustainable mobility on the European continent, the committee placed emphasis on the need to use alternative and innovative means of financing for EU transport infrastructures, and especially the Union's own resources. The plenary vote is foreseen for the month of June.
MEPs felt that inadequate financing of EU transport infrastructures presents a “considerable risk” and called on the Commission to make proposals on the possibility of enlarging the financing means for these infrastructures, including those of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). Alternative and innovative means of financing could, they say, include EU own resources. With this in mind, MEPs called on the European Commission to examine, during annual review of the budget, additional financial sources for transport infrastructures but also for research into transport. Alternative and innovative methods of financing should be based on the internalisation of external costs and the polluter-pays principle, they said. The committee set out its expectations with regard to the generally applicable model that is both transparent and exhaustive for internalisation of external transport costs and the impact assessment report for this model that is to be presented by the European Commission in 2008 (see EUROPE 9363). Agreeing on an approach that is “more realistic than before” with regard to transport policy, MEPs recognised how important it was to combine various modes of transport. They nonetheless commented that co-modality should go hand in hand with reduction of environmental harm caused by transport.
Furthermore, the committee stressed the importance of European maritime policy and of the “motorways of the sea” and placed emphasis on the development of aviation and its inclusion in the Community greenhouse gas emissions trading system. (aby)