Brussels, 21/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - Promises are made to be kept: the European Commission is on its way to adopting its Green Paper on urban transport on Tuesday 25 September. At the 4 June conference (see EUROPE 9441), Commission Vice-President and Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot set out the bare bones of this European approach to transport in towns. The Green Paper will put flesh on the bones, informing the European debate on the challenges of congestion, pollution, insecurity, access problems and the cost of transport. By means of this Green Paper, the Commission will launch a wide public consultation exercise with a view to deciding on, as far as is possible, a European framework for urban transport.
The Green Paper, which was announced in the June 2006 revised White Paper, is the first step towards the adoption of a legislative framework for urban transport. Following the consultation period from January to June 2007, the document is expected to pick up the issues that matter to society: the environment and mobility. Very “green” and very brave, the Commission's Green Paper is likely, for the first time, to propose solutions to ensure mobility in towns: - encouraging people to walk and cycle (the average citizen makes roughly 1,000 journeys per year, half of which are of less than 5 kilometres); - more accessible, better organised and more reliable public transport; - clean vehicles and intelligent transport systems. The Commission is also expected to encourage the use of public transport (with car parks on the edge of towns, better connections between private and public transport, congestion charges in towns and public taxi companies).
According to Commission estimates, public transport carries 2.5-3 times more passengers than private cars. All these measures, which will respect the subsidiarity principle, will help reduce pollution in towns: urban transport produces 40% of the total amount of CO2 emissions from road transport. (aby)