Transport

Major challenges

As our societies become ever more mobile, EU policy should help our transport systems meet the major challenges they are facing:

• congestion affects both road and air traffic. It costs Europe around 1% of its annual GDP. But freight transport is increasing: by 2030, it is forecast to be 40% more than in 2005; 80% higher by 2050. Passenger traffic is set to grow too: 34% up on 2005 by 2030 and 51% up by 2050.
• oil dependency – transport has become more energy-efficient but still depends on oil for 96% of its energy needs. Oil will become scarcer in future decades, sourced increasingly from unstable parts of the world. By 2050, the price of oil is projected to be more than double the 2005 level of $59 a barrel.
• greenhouse emissions – by 2050, the EU needs to achieve a 60% cut in emissions for the transport sector compared with 1990 levels if we are to limit global warming to an increase of just 2ºC. Overall, by 2050, the EU needs to reduce emissions by 80–95% below 1990 levels in order to reach this goal.
• infrastructure – unequally developed across the EU. Eastern EU countries tend to lack purpose-built high-speed rail lines and conventional railway lines are often in poor condition.
• competition – the EU’s transport sector faces growing competition in fast developing transport markets in other world regions.

For a comprehensive view of key statistics on transport see: Transport 2050: 50 facts and figures

Efficient, integrated, sustainable transport

Competition and smart regulation

To make Europe's transport systems more efficient, the EU has been opening up national markets to competition – particularly road and air transport, but also rail to some extent.

Road – trucks can now operate in countries other than their own, and no longer return empty on international journeys.

Rail – in 2003, a first liberalisation package opened about 70-80% of long-distance rail freight traffic to competition. Now the Commission is proposing that passenger rail transport networks should also be open to competition. All administrative and regulatory obstacles should be removed too – in relation to rail and other transport modes.

Air – liberalisation has brought more competition, lower fares and more connections between EU countries. The EU's Single European Sky will help that trend continue. Transatlantic traffic is freer too: the EU's "open skies" agreement with the US allows any EU airline to fly from any EU airport to any city in the US.

Passenger rights

Travellers in the EU have passenger rights that protect their interests, especially when something goes wrong.

Safety

The EU:

• works with regional and national authorities on road safety, aiming to halve the number of road deaths over the next 10 years
• has banned unsafe airlines from Europe
• is tightening rules on maritime safety, including tougher ship inspections, penalties for pollution caused through gross negligence, and faster phasing-out of single-hulled tankers
• sets safety and security standards and only funds new infrastructure projects that meet those standards
• promotes safety and security standards in the rest of the world through cooperation and agreements, for example with the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization

Green transport

The transport sector, principally road vehicles, account for 28% of the EU's CO2, emissions. The Commission is working on new legislation to lower limits for carbon emissions from cars and promote better fuel efficiency and the use of alternative fuels.

The Commission also supports research and effective deployment of new green transport technologies. Its Strategic Transport Technology Plan (STTP) will involve a major regrouping and refocusing of transport R&D efforts in Europe.

As part of the overall STTP, the Commission will publish a clean transport systems strategy in 2012, with specific measures to promote clean vehicles and develop EU-wide standards relating, for instance, to interoperability of charging/refuelling infrastructure.

Infrastructure

Liberalisation alone cannot solve deep-seated problems such as emissions, poor links to outlying regions and badly connected national networks.

The EU is revising its TEN-T policy with the aim of creating a multimodal "core network" linking major cities and bringing together the western and eastern parts of the EU. Infrastructure policy should also support other objectives, such as social cohesion and limiting climate change.

In addition to the importance of public funding for transport, a new approach to transport charges is needed to create a fair financial environment: transport charges must be restructured in the direction of a wider application of the "polluter pays" and "user pays" principle.