The Commission's "Greening Transport" package, unveiled in July 2008, is intended to contribute

to the EU's climate and energy goals. Consisting of a number of communications,

it aims to promote sustainable transport and ensure that the real costs of transport are reflected

in their effective price.

The Transport Committee's own-initiative report, drafted by Georg Jarzembowski (EPP-ED,

DE), points out that the Commission has not – by its own admission – devised and put

forward a generally applicable, transparent, and comprehensible model for the assessment

of external costs as a whole. It has not analysed the impact on every mode of transport and,

in practical terms, has so far put forward legislation only for heavy goods road vehicles.

Parliament therefore urges the Commission to take steps without delay, firstly to produce

specific proposals for all modes of transport; secondly to submit a comprehensive plan for

calculating and charging external costs and assessing their impact on the basis of a comprehensible

model.

The report also looks at the problem of people living beside railway lines, who can suffer

from the noise of trains braking. Although MEPs want the Commission to draft a directive

to introduce noise-related track access charges, so as to prompt rail companies to upgrade

their rolling stock with new brake blocks, they stress that any legislation must not affect the

rail sector adversely in intermodal competition.

MEPs call on the Commission when putting forward further proposals to green the transport

sector, to include assessments of the impact of competition between transport modes and

associated social and environmental impacts, as was done with the proposal to revise the

Eurovignette Directive, and to include the costs of mobility and competitiveness.

press release