Septembr 18, 2002
EERO YRJÖ-KOSKINEN
Finnish Association for Nature Conservation
Discussion at the Ministry for Transport and Communication on the development of a common transport policy in Europe, with the participation of François Lamoureux, Director-General for Energy and Transport, European Commission
I want to thank Director General Lamoureux for his interesting presentation, which highlighted the objectives of the Commission in achieving a sustainable transport policy in Europe.
However, let me point out some of the problems which remain to be solved at Community level. First, it remains unclear whether the activities proposed by the Commision will make a difference and alter the current trend, where greenhouse gases produced by road traffic are estimated to increase by 50% between 1990 and 2010.
Despite the Commissionís efforts, the level of road transport has increased everywhere in Europe, leading to major congestion problems in road traffic. In addition to its negative impact on environment and public health, it is beginning to threaten the economic competitiveness of the Community. A recent study on the subject shows that the external costs of road congestion already amount to 0.5% of Community GDP. If nothing is done, road congestion will increase significantly by 2010. Consequently, the costs attributable to congestion would increase to EUR 80 billion a year, which is nearly 1% of Community GDP.
This trend will be further strengthened by enlargement, which - according to the Commissionís White Paper - will generate an explosion in transport flows in the new Member States, particularly in the border regions. Economic growth will generate greater needs for mobility, with estimated increases in demand of 38% for goods services and 24% for passengers.
According to the Commission´s estimates,
the saturation of major arteries together with the need to upgrade
infrastructure in the candidate countries will require massive
investments in sustainable transport networks. In view of this
prospect, it has proposed to modify the rules for granting Community
financial aid in the field of TENs. As a result, the level of
Community co-financing would be increased from 10% to 20% to attract
private investments in major infrastructure projects. This modification
would be aimed primarily to eliminate bottlenecks in border regions
with the candidate countries, as well as to increase EU funding
to the 12 priority projects financed under energy TENs.
The question is whether these measures will really lead to the
objective set in June 2001 at the EU summit in Gothenburg, i.e.
to achieve a sustainable transport policy? Frankly speaking, I
don´t think they will. Experience hs shown that Member States
are extremely reluctant to introduce new environmental regulations
which run contrary to the principles of competitiveness. At the
end of the day, the measures proposed by the Commission may improve
the flow of traffic, but the real challenge - that is the shift
in transport modes from road to rail - will remain unsettled.
From an environmental perspective, this kind of approach is of course compeletely inadequate as it places an emphasis on short-term needs without tackling the real causes of the problem. From our point of view, no improvement can be achieved without a drastic revision of current policies. Hence, Community funding in transport TENs should be linked to the reduction of traffic growth and air pollution. The achievement of sustainable mobility would require the introduction of appropriate user charges, road tolls and fuel taxes. These charges would reflect the true costs caused by road transport to society. In addition, they would act as a powerful economic incentive as they would increase the use of other modes of transport, such as rail and waterways.