Sustainability is the key

Dirk Sterckx, Belgian MEP, longtime transport specialist: "Sustainability is the key" As climate change laws and fuel scarcity start to bite into the petrol-based economy, Europe will have to battle to uphold the principle of sustainability in transport, says Belgian MEP and...

Martinez-Sans: The downturn will hit the transport sector

The economic crisis will overschadow everything in the transport sector for years to come, says Fuensanta Martinez-Sans, Director for Transport Policy and Public Relations at the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). She says the recession has already hit the tran...

Too much needless competition between the modes

Update on the 2009 European Transport Forum Debate, September 9, 2009 There is too much needless competition between road, rail, air and sea services, EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani told the European Transport Forum in Brussels on September 9. Speaking less than...

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The European Transport Forum is the EU’s top debating platform on transport issues. It gathers stakeholders, policy-makers, academics and NGOs to help shape the EU’s future transport policy. Initially a conference platform, the European Transport Forum has now branched into the online world, fos...

Poll: Cost of Transport

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Poll: Co-Modality

Co-operation in transport is better than modal shift

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Policy

We must address energy efficiency

Energy efficiency will be the transport challenge for future generations, the European Commission’s Deputy Director General for Energy and Transport, Zoltan Kazatsay, has told the European Transport Forum.

“How can we find the proper balance between the efficient output of the transport sector and at the same time the proper use of energy resources which will be available 15 to 20 years later?” he said.

Kazatsay said it was crucial not to forget “the human factor” in transport policy. “It is very important to see the interest of human beings in the long run and how transport is having an impact on it,” he said. “This is addressed by a single word: sustainability.”

He also emphasized transport’s function to protect. “It should protect those who are involved in transport activities like users, operators and drivers,” he said. “But at the same time it should protect other things, like the environment: transport is considered to be one of the most harmful contributors to environmental pollution, so we have to put a strong emphasis on this in the future.”

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