UNIFE PUBLISHES POSITION PAPER ON THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT’S OWN INITIATIVE REPORT ON SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY

The European Parliament’s Transport Committee is working on an own-initiative report on sustainable urban mobility, under the lead of the French Green MEP, Karima Delli. The report is due to be adopted in September 2015 (in conjunction with the European Mobility week, 16-22 September). This report is meant to push the urban mobility agenda forward at the EU level through concrete proposals by the European Commission.

UNIFE has published a position paper on this initiative promoting the idea that sustainable means of transport, such as light rail, metros and commuter trains, as well as the upgrading and renewal of rail control and signalling solutions should be further encouraged by urban policies. In the context of ongoing debates on e-mobility, UNIFE stresses that rail is by far the largest provider of electric mobility for both urban and interurban transport, providing high transport capacities with the best modal energy efficiency. As a consequence, rail-bound solutions should be the starting point of any future EU policies aimed at promoting electric mobility. When it comes to financing, UNIFE calls on the Commission to increase or at least maintain the current level of public investments in sustainable urban transport and explore alternative financing solutions such as PPPs.

For further information, please contact leonardo.dongiovanni@unife.org.