By Anthony Fletcher - 25th September 2007
STRASBOURG: MEPs have largely welcomed commission proposals on urban transport, though questions remain over funding and structure.
Transport commissioner Jacques Barrot, presenting his green paper to MEPs on Tuesday afternoon shortly after its adoption by the commission, said that Europe needed swifter moving transport.
“Traffic jams in urban centres contribute to a loss of one per cent of GDP across the EU,” he said.
“All ways of achieving efficiency and fluidity should be encouraged.”
MEPs were by and large in agreement.
“This idea is a good one,” said German deputy Georg Jarzembowski.
Austrian MEP Jörg Leichtfried added that he “liked what he’d heard”, while transport committee chair Paolo Costa said that the green paper would “open the path to a common sense approach raising to EU level a focus on the urban dimension”.
“So far, the EU has competence on transport but not on town planning, which is precisely where transport issues are of greatest concern as regards mobility, pollution, safety, etc,” he said.
“The EU can indeed play a catalyst role for policies and best practices apt to contribute to problems common to every European city.”
MEP questions will nonetheless need to be answered before the consultation period ends in March.
Jarzembowski, for example, wanted to know how the commission would guarantee that measures would not simply be imposed on regions, and asked whether a system of incentives would be put in place to encourage best practice.
Jean Marie Beaupuy, chairman of the intergroup on urban housing, stressed the need to take an integrated approach to urban planning, while German Green Michael Cramer asked the commissioner how the EU would ensure that alternative forms of transport were properly supported.
“It is true that we don’t have a certain percentage of funds that have to be used for certain forms of transport,” responded Barrot. “But our green paper is about trying to convince regions on the way they target their use of funds.”
French Socialist Gilles Savary added that while some sort of coercive policy was not acceptable, incentives were needed to encourage regions to invest in greener forms of transport.
“Cities must also be intelligent and more accessible, and urban and town planning should be devised to reflect this,” agreed Barrot.
The transport commissioner added that he was thinking of introducing a charter for rights of public transport users.
“This green paper should pave the way for a wide ranging consultation until 15 March,” said Barrot.
“The European parliament must play a role. We are talking about the daily lives of citizens, and if citizenship means anything it must mean safer mobility.”
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