Unife Position papers

Summary

This position paper provides a response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Communication “A sustainable future for transport: towards an integrated, technology led and user-friendly system”. UNIFE very much welcomes the initiative to review European transport policies and to set policy goals for the coming years that aim to provide an adequate response to the challenges of the future.

While UNIFE agrees with the European Commission’s analysis to a large extent, it believes however, that especially the challenge of climate change should receive the utmost attention. Achieving an emission reduction and a more sustainable European transport system should be the policy priority of the EU in the years to come.

To attain this goal, UNIFE lays out a number of policy measures that should be taken. These range from increased investments in new and existing railway infrastructures to adequate charging and taxation policies. The internalisation of external cost will become a political imperative. Research policy should become better coordinated and market opening and regulatory reform of the railway sector further pursued.

In parallel, more sustainable transport behaviour amongst citizens and shippers should be incentivised through the right pricing signals and an adequate offer of transport solutions. Finally, the EU should not hesitate to promote the benefits of sustainable transport solutions globally.