Lamoureux highlights transport priorities for the next Commission

MEPs who are members of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN)met for the first time on 28 July. They were briefed on the Commission priorities for the next five years in the field of transport. François Lamoureux, head of the Commission's Directorate General for Transport, highlighted five priority areas:

• Reinforcing safety and security for all modes of transport: this includes further work on the European satellite navigation system, Galileo, and on road safety
• Financing and funding of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TENTs): especially the Eurovignette directive [which requires lorries to pay to use road infrastructure] and raising financing from the private sector
• Doing something practical about sustainable development: this is to be achieved through charging infrastructures' users, modal shift, promoting clean vehicles and possibly taxing kerosene on intra-EU flights
• Developing proposals to improve passengers' rights
• Developing an external relations policy in the field of transport: one of the many issues here is to reinforce the power of the EU in international organisations, such as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), so that they adopt regulations that are in the EU's interests.

The lively Director-General stressed that a debate should be open on whether cars should be banned from city centres, be it at national or European level. He promised to provide MEPs with a list of Member States that are currently facing court cases for not implementing EU legislation in the field of transport.