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As the European Commission prepares to unveil today its Communication on the future of European transport, we speak with Mattia Pellegrini, an aide to EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani.
Today, June 17, the European Commission will publish a paper laying down a strategic vision for the future of transport and mobility. It is an ambitious effort that outlines the key transport challenges of our time and sets the scene for an integrated, technology-led and user friendly transport system. “We want to be able to identify the key drivers of European transport, as they will determine our policies over the next ten years,” says Mattia Pellegrini, the 35-year-old aide who has been instrumental in drafting the Communication.
Pellegrini works in the cabinet of European Commission Vice-President and Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani. He says the overall goal of the EU’s transport policy is to establish a sustainable and fully integrated transport system that meets society's environmental, social and economic needs. But firstly, the EU has to be clear about what is driving transport in Europe: Pellegrini says the Communication identifies the five vital trends that will affect transport over the next decade:
• Climate change, and environmental challenges in general
• The aging of Europe’s population
• Immigration
• Urban areas
• Globalization
Immigration might not be an obvious item on the list, but Pellegrini says that it is all about the mobility of people. “There will be a net import of workers between now and 2050 of 54-56 million people,” he says. “That means we have millions more people traveling around Europe. The transport infrastructure will have to adapt to this huge increase in demand.”
But urban growth is clearly a driver for transport. “Cities will be the connection point,” he says. “All the big networks will involve cities, and if they are not planned efficiently, there will be huge problems of congestion. And pollution: urban mobility will be a huge area for resolving environmental challenges.”
As for globalization, Pellegrini says this is a factor covering both challenges from abroad, but also the question of how to connect Europe’s networks with those of neighbouring regions, like Africa.
Pellegrini explains that the Communication is part of a long process that will lead to the adoption in 2010 of a new Transport White Paper laying down a European action programme for the next decade and help the transition to a low-carbon society.
The process started with a series of focus groups with the different stakeholders and transport experts, and was followed by a High Level Stakeholders’ Conference in March. The upcoming Communication itself is not a detailed programme of policy measures, but proposes a vision and ideas that aim to stimulate further debate and develop new possible policy options.
And next year, the White Paper should provide concrete policy proposals. “We do not want to prejudge the final outcome, which will be the next White Paper in 2010,” Pellegrini says. “This will obviously be for the next Commission that will take office in November, and it would be inappropriate and unfair for an outgoing Commissioner to set the agenda for the next ten years. But it would be appropriate – and a nice gesture – what are the drivers and objectives of policies.”
Next year’s White Paper will follow-up a 2001 White Paper that set an agenda for transport policy until 2010. The underlying aim of the 2001 document was to cut road congestion by transferring freight to what was seen as environmentally-friendly transport like maritime routes and railways.
However, a mid-term review in 2006 shifted the strategy to take more account of market realities, and developed the concept of ‘co-modality’, or the optimized use of all modes of transport – with easier transfers from one mode to another through the harmonization of standards and more efficient logistics chains. “The objectives will be the same as those in the mid-term review of 2006, including the issue of co-modality,” says Pellegrini. “However, we now prefer another term for this, which is the integration of different modes of transport. Each mode of transport has its own peculiarity, and its own contribution to make. You can achieve a lot in terms of efficiency, pollution reduction and cost cutting by integrating the different modes of transport well.”
Pellegrini offers, as examples, high speed trains and aviation, or in urban areas, cycling and walking. And this ties in with what he expects to become a key part of the EU’s approach to transport: technology. “In the communication, we say clearly that one element which will have a huge impact in the future of transport policy is technology,” Pellegrini says. This will work in two ways: developing of assisting technologies to help make systems more efficient; and in developing alternative modes of transport. “There are many projects around Europe in these areas. We believe technologies will make the difference over the next ten years,” he says.
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