Skip to main content

European Commission proposal to increase research and investment in Europe’s transportation sector

The EU is launching a new plan, Research and Innovation for Europe’s Future Mobility, that aims to develop a long-term policy strategy that among other goals, is to reduce road casualties to almost zero and greenhouse gas emission from the transport sector by 60 per cent in 2050. The plan doesn’t propose any new EU funding or regulations but instead proposes an initiative to meet with Member States and other relevant stakeholder to discuss policy priorities and objectives. Speaking about the plan, Vice Pres
September 24, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The EU is launching a new plan, Research and Innovation for Europe’s Future Mobility, that aims to develop a long-term policy strategy that among other goals, is to reduce road casualties to almost zero and greenhouse gas emission from the transport sector by 60 per cent in 2050.

The plan doesn’t propose any new EU funding or regulations but instead proposes an initiative to meet with Member States and other relevant stakeholder to discuss policy priorities and objectives.

Speaking about the plan, Vice President of the 1690 European Commission, Siim Kallas said: “This new initiative will help our transport system to develop into an even more efficient, sustainable and user-friendly system to reach our mobility goals. It will impact positively on growth and jobs in Europe.”

The transport plan joins an increasing range of ‘roadmaps’, Strategic Agendas, and other broad policy pronouncements from the Commission, that  aim to have a positive impact on growth and jobs in Europe.

It also follows on from a 2011 White Paper on Transport which laid out the vision, objectives and strategies for creating a single European transport area.

The Commission estimates that the additional investment needed to invent vehicles, equipment and vehicle-charging infrastructure to achieve the emission-reduction goals for the European transport system will cost around one trillion euros between 2010 and 2030, or about the same amount EU households spend on transport in one year.

Two main funding options have been identified. Should it be approved,  the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) which was proposed by the Commission in 2011 to fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks would be the primary source as it has a proposed budget of €31.7 linked to transport. The second major source of funding linked directly to these objectives is Horizon 2020, which includes a proposed budget of €6.8 billion euros for research and innovation on "smart, green and integrated transport".

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ITS European Congress 2025: Shaping the future of mobility
    May 16, 2025
    Clean, Resilient & Connected Mobility: #ITSSeville2025 takes place 19-21 May
  • Does enforcement merit a place in the EU's ITS action Plan?
    February 3, 2012
    Colin Wilson, IBI Group, looks at the implications for enforcement of the European Commission's new Action Plan for the Deployment of ITS in Europe
  • Deadlines approach for Europe’s automatic crash alert system
    September 15, 2016
    The EU-co-funded I_ HeERO (Infrastructure_ Harmonised eCall European Pilot) project is working to ensure the readiness of national networks of call centres - known as public safety answering posts (PSAPs) - to deal with automated crash alerts arriving via the continent-wide 112 emergency phone number. Following on from its HeERO and HeERO2 pre-deployment predecessors, which enjoyed €16m (US$17.76m) in EU funding, the new initiative runs from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017. It has €30.9 million (US$34.
  • Bedfordshire police speed camera proposals ‘unhelpful’
    November 9, 2015
    A UK enforcement expert and the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) have branded as ‘unhelpful’ the proposal by Olly Martins, Police Commissioner for Bedfordshire to use money from speed camera fines to fill a shortfall in police funding. Martins told the Home Affairs Select Committee that the force was ‘stretched to the limit’ and said, "We’ve extensively lobbied the Home Office for fair funding but they haven’t listened and the Chancellor's spending review at the end of the month means we face more c