The European Parliament adopted a resolution on logistics in the EU and multimodal transport in the new TEN-T corridors. The EP highlights, again, the third goal of the Commission’s White Paper on Transport which aims to shift 30 % of road freight over 300 km to more sustainable modes such as rail and waterborne transport by 2030, and more than 50 % by 2050, requiring also the development of appropriate infrastructure.
The Parliament welcomes the strengthened emphasis, within the core network corridor approach, to enhance the quality of transport nodes and of their last-mile connections, to identify and overcome interoperability barriers, to enhance and innovate ICT solutions and to close any other gap (physical, technical or organisational) that may hamper seamless freight logistics services.
MEPs consider that a seamless EU infrastructure system will only deliver its benefits to the logistics sector, and thereby also to regional development and growth, if implemented and consistent with EU legislation and with the TEN-T policy already adopted; urge the Member States to transpose legislation correctly into national law without hampering the free exchange of goods; calls on the Member States to increase their efforts to apply and abide by European legislation and to refrain from introducing new (administrative) barriers.
Within the resolution adopted, the EP underlines that logistics plays a key role, not sufficiently recognised, in ensuring efficient and sustainable freight transport operations in the EU.
The European Parliament regrets that Member States’ national infrastructure plans are too often decided without reference to the TEN-T objectives.
The EP urges the Commission to examine the reasons for such lack of cooperation and to increase the coordination between the two levels of planning, and suggests adding to the European Semester a chapter on supervising its coherence and clear effectiveness, with appropriate corrective measures.
The Parliament calls on the Commission to prioritise Member State projects that are in line with the TEN-T and that concentrate efforts on those with greater European added value, and to monitor cross-border transport projects.
MEPs urge the Member States to decide on their national infrastructure plans in accordance with the TEN-T objectives.
MEPs highlight the need to formulate a renewed EU strategy for freight logistics:
— taking account of the new TEN-T infrastructure policy,
— aiming to further reduce regulatory, operational and technical barriers,
— designed to ensure optimal use of resources,
— aimed at applying and implementing new technologies and innovative solutions that will strengthen the sector’s performance and accelerate the shift towards a secure and low-carbon transport system,
— aiming to increase connectivity and develop infrastructure in areas where it is missing,
— promoting and supporting the European rail supply industry as well as boosting a European rail reindustrialisation policy, with the win-win perspective of making EU logistics more sustainable and obtaining a better competition position for rail products on the global market,
— presenting an independent scientific study detailing the extent to which road freight could be transferred to rail and inland waterways by 2030 and by 2050, the costs associated with this, and the extent to which environmental damage such as noise and air pollution can be avoided.
The Parliament recalls, in this context, the importance of urban nodes – where a large part of transport modes (ports, airports logistics, hubs, terminals, etc.) are located and where transhipments and last-mile distributions take place – as they are key to the whole logistic chains, requiring greater attention if seamless city logistics are to be ensured; stresses the importance of investments in these urban nodes, as well as of the promotion of rail connections with industrial plants and improved interconnectivity of rail with seaports, inland ports and hinterland hubs.
The European Parliament asks the Commission to prioritise these investments in the 2017 review of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
The resolution underlines the importance of innovation in the use of new technologies, such as digitalisation (e.g. digital freight letters), access to data and data exchange, while maintaining a high level of cyber security and data protection, enabling more efficient transport and logistics solutions, provided interoperability and equal and non-discriminatory access are ensured; calls on the Commission to put forward proposals to ensure the integration, accessibility and protection of data underpinning logistics and freight transport.
The Parliament regards the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) as a successful European project for the promotion of freight in the rail sector, and welcomes the efforts to accelerate its deployment by establishing milestones per corridor; is aware of the constraints that affect funding of multinational, multi-level (ERTMS) projects.
Within the adopted text, the EP invites the Commission and the European Investment Advisory Hub to come forward with specific funding solutions to ease access to European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) funding for ERTMS deployment in favour of both infrastructure and locomotive installations.
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