Sustainable transport and combating climate change are among the French EU Presidency’s priorities in the transport sector. France aims to take forward debates on internalising the sector’s external costs, against the backdrop of the important package on ‘greening transport’ the European Commission will be presenting on 8 July. This will include a method for calculating the external costs generated by different modes of transport, an evaluation of existing measures to cut pollution from transport and, above all, a proposal for amendment of the Eurovignette Directive that will allow member states to introduce road tolls to recover costs related to pollution, noise and congestion (see Europolitics3536, with link to draft document).

The subject is sensitive, as seen in the preparatory debates at an informal Council session under the Slovenian EU Presidency, on 6 May (3525), but France will try to have conclusions adopted at a Transport Council in October, in Luxembourg. The package will also be debated at an informal Council, to be held on 1-2 September in La Rochelle.

In its sustainable transport priority, the French EU Presidency also hopes to secure Council conclusions on the action plan on urban transport the Commission is set to present, in autumn 2008. This will list actions to make traffic in cities more fluid and thus curb pollution.

Safetyis the second big priority for the French. They are looking to reach first-reading agreement on the draft directive on cross-border prosecution of traffic offenders (3495) and to obtain results on the Erika III package on maritime safety. Of the seven proposals that make up the package, five will be entering into the second reading stage of co-decision. The other two – a proposal to strengthen flag state obligations and another on compensating victims of pollution – are currently blocked in Council (3506) and many states would like to see them shelved. But at the latest Transport Council, on 7 April, French State Secretary for Transport Dominique Bussereau announced that he intended to continue work on both. One thing seems certain: if agreement is reached, the texts will have been considerably watered down from the Commission’s initial proposals. Also on maritime matters, the informal Council in La Rochelle will focus on the motorways of the sea, which are struggling to gain momentum in Europe.

The development of intelligent transport systems and the use of new technologies will also be priorities (the Presidency will be keeping a close watch on Galileo, the European satellite navigation system, and the Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative). A number of legislative initiatives will be starting or continuing their usual course, notably the proposals on airport fees, computerised reservation systems for air travel, revision of the Single European Sky (proposals tabled on 25 June) and the package on admission to the occupation of transport operator and access to the road transport market. The latter is particularly controversial and it will be interesting to see what compromise the French – who are extremely cautious on the subject – will be able to reach on the tricky question of liberalisation of road cabotage, which Parliament wants to see in place by 2014.

The Presidency aims to take forward debates on internalising the sector’s external costs

Important dates

Transport Councils on 9 October in Luxembourg and 9 December in Brussels. Informal ministerial meeting on 1-2 September in La Rochelle. European Aviation Summit on 17-19 November in Bordeaux on ‘Aviation and the environment’.