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The flow of people into Greece may have stopped, but elsewhere Europe’s migrant crisis continues unabated.

Tens of thousands of people are still making the dangerous crossing from north Africa to Italy every month – and more are dying than ever before.

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Jean Arthuis (ALDE, FR), Chair of the Committee on Budgets, travelled on Tuesday to the Gaza Strip. He visited EU-funded projects aimed at promoting sustainable economic development and empowerment of women as well as infrastructure projects in the water sector, such as the North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment Plant NGEST and recently inaugurated Water Desalination Plant in Deir Bala, next to Khan Yunis.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Jean Arthuis (ALDE, FR), Chair of the Committee on Budgets, travelled on Tuesday to the Gaza Strip. He visited EU-funded projects aimed at promoting sustainable economic development and empowerment of women as well as infrastructure projects in the water sector, such as the North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment Plant NGEST and recently inaugurated Water Desalination Plant in Deir Bala, next to Khan Yunis.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee discussed the motives and the possible consequences of Turkey’s recent attempted coup with Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn and representatives of the European External Action Service on Tuesday morning. MEPs emphasized that to ensure further accession talks, Turkey must stick to democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee discussed the motives and the possible consequences of Turkey’s recent attempted coup with Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn and representatives of the European External Action Service on Tuesday morning. MEPs emphasized that to ensure further accession talks, Turkey must stick to democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee discussed the motives and the possible consequences of Turkey’s recent attempted coup with Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn and representatives of the European External Action Service on Tuesday morning. MEPs emphasized that to ensure further accession talks, Turkey must stick to democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Summer recess

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Summer recess

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Summer recess

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Summer recess

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Summer recess

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Somewhere between a glorified list of upcoming regulatory initiatives and a forward looking strategy, the Communication of decarbonisation of transport will be the first official position by the Commission on aligning transport and climate objectives after the publication of the White Paper on Transport. Here are some elements to keep in mind ahead of its official publication on Wednesday.

All about efficiency

The key to the future of the European transport system is expected to be based on increased efficiency – at system, fuel, and vehicle level. This includes efficiency across transport modes.

Such objective is closely linked to a reduced focus on specific types of emission; ultimately, the Commission would like to see the transport value chain optimize its energy use, while improving its CO2 and air quality performance.

Is the Communication promoting technology neutrality?

In its Communication, the Commission is undertaking a very delicate balancing act. The intent is clear that zero-emission mobility is the preferred way forward both on the vehicle and fuel side; yet the understanding remains that much needs to be done to develop technologies that will be financially attractive both to consumers, Member States and industries.

Fact of the matter is that the EU is one of the global leaders in the development of transport technologies and that a “reset” will be difficult – not to say impossible; both for operational and competitiveness issues. For this reason the Communication is expected to commend EU innovation and underline the value of bridge technologies, including more efficient internal combustion engines.

What is going to fuel the future?

According to the Commission, the future will be all about advanced energy sources. This includes advanced biofuels (central to the strategy), renewable electricity and synthetic fuels. While “well-to-emissions” are not expected to be mentioned explicitly, it has become clear that a life-cycle approach for emission savings would be the winning approach on the fuel side in order to address issues at every level of the value chain.

However, what remains to be seen is how the Commission is planning on addressing efficiency improvements and emission savings in its two relevant Directives: the Renewable Energy and the Fuel Quality Directives. Post 2020, the Fuel Quality Directive could become the governing instrument to provide a framework for the provision of incentives to produce and market low-emission, high quality, and energy efficient fuels.

The promotion of advanced low-emission fuels is also addressed from an infrastructure angle. The Commission clearly aims to put pressure on Member States and companies to speed up the roll-out of alternative fuel infrastructure both at urban and national scale. But is the message reaching investors’ ears?

“Show me the money”

The Commission understands that developing the technology to reduce emissions and creating economies of scale will require significant investment by the European transport industry, across its different value chains. By presenting its main lines of action for the coming years, the Commission aims to increase investor confidence in “promising” sectors, such as low- and zero- emission vehicles and low-emission energy sources.

Investors are expected to be supported by three financing streams: the European Fund for Strategic Investment, Horizon 2020 (for research and innovation) and the European Structural Funds (for sustainable urban mobility). These will hopefully help bridge the 3 billion euro investment gap currently required for Europe transition to low-carbon mobility.

Nonetheless, private investment will also be required. At the moment, the Commission does not provide a clear signal to its transport industry that it will support the improvement of existing technologies (which are widely accepted by consumers) in order to facilitate the transition to a low-emission transport system. In order to mitigate risk it would have been beneficial to underline the added value of putting all technologies, both new and existing, at the same footing, based on their emission reduction potential. This would increase certainty and reinforce the message that companies throughout Europe wouldn’t need to radically change their production and endure costs in order to achieve results.

What’s next?

The Communication will include an action plan with policy instruments that will support the roll-out to low-emission mobility. The Communication as a whole will be presented in the Parliament and Council and specific Commission initiatives will start to come out as of the autumn; they will cover a multitude of issues covering all modes, such as a master plan for intelligent transport systems, a proposal for the certification of CO2 emissions from heavy duty vehicles, to the Revision of the Regulation on rail for freight.

For anyone working on issues impacted by transport policy, the time to be concrete about your policy asks is now. Get your technical teams to the table and provide Commission services with data and recommendations; your objective would be to emphasise your role in the value chain, how your solutions can contribute to achieving the Commission’s objectives and what the socio-economic impact would be to potentially change your modus operandi.

Ilektra Tsakalidou, with help from Laura Rozzo and Michael Stanton-Geddes

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Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP