Conference calls for better integration of environment into transport policy

On 10-11 October the European Commission held a conference on “Good Practice in Integration of Environment into Transport Policy”. Policy-makers at national and regional level, officials from transport and environment ministries, national authorities and NGO representatives exchanged examples of good practice and experience in integration of environmental concerns into transport policy.

On 10-11 October, policy-makers, officials from transport and environment ministries as well as representatives of non-governmental organisations gathered in Brussels to exchange examples of good practice and experience on integration of environmental concerns into transport policy.

Conclusions for EU policy-making include:

• Land use planning: More cooperation between land use planners and transport authorities is needed.

• Intermodality: Regulations must create correct conditions of competition. Financial support is necessary at the start of the entrepreneurial initiative (as long as conditions of competition are not correct). MARCO POLO should be adopted as proposed by Commission. The budget should not be shortened.

• Infrastructure pricing: EU legislation should not be a barrier. It should urgently promote harmonised charging schemes.

• Infrastructure investment decisions: Responsibility for spending should be matched to the right level of the community. Communities should be allowed to finance alternative ways of providing access and even projects other than transport.

• Sensitive areas: Areas should be identified and special policy instruments developed for them.

• Targets: Environmental targets for EU sector policies should be defined as well as targets at national and regional levels to supplement these targets. (In the White Paper on the Common Transport Policy from September 2001, the Commission announced a Communication on targets.)

• SEA: Focus should be on how to best implement the SEA directive in member states and in relation to TEN and TINA.

• Indicators: The monitoring exercise should receive sufficient support and results be integrated into policy-making. TERM as well as national and regional efforts should be further developed. Policymakers should be held accountable for performance towards their goals and indicators as reflected in TERM.

• Institutional setup: Emphasis was put on early and continuous stakeholder involvement, professional training and commitment of whole organisations as opposed to individual units.

• Public acceptance: To make the public accept environmental policies, clear goals should be set and communicated well. Policies should be on totally volontary basis. The use of revenues is crucial for public acceptance.

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