Skip to main content

Summit of Ministers calls for more global co-operation in transport policy

“Policymakers are facing greater levels of uncertainty in decision making, with the speed, nature, intensity and timing of change” Ministers of Transport from around the world have called for more international co-operation to create transport systems for the needs of a changing world. “Global transformational change is a characteristic of our age”, ministers from the 54 member countries of the International Transport Forum (ITF) state in a declaration agreed today at their Annual Summit in Leipzig,
May 23, 2014 Read time: 3 mins
“Policymakers are facing greater levels of uncertainty in decision making, with the speed, nature, intensity and timing of change”
 
Ministers of Transport from around the world have called for more international co-operation to create transport systems for the needs of a changing world.
 
“Global transformational change is a characteristic of our age”, ministers from the 54 member countries of the 998 International Transport Forum (ITF) state in a declaration agreed today at their Annual Summit in Leipzig, Germany.
 
Noting the impact of megatrends like demographic change, digitalisation, shifting trade flows and climate change, the ministerial declaration states:  
 
“In this environment of transformation, policymakers are facing greater levels of uncertainty in decision making, with the speed, nature, intensity and timing of change in recent years occurring beyond what has been expected.”
 
“The reality of governing in this interconnected world requires greater emphasis on international and regional co-operation as well as information sharing, and suggests that policymakers should work together more effectively to adopt common policy responses.”
 
“While adapting to these global economic and societal phenomena, transport itself is also a driver of change, as innovation in the sector opens new frontiers. In this way, transport is itself defining new landscapes of opportunity for a greener and more inclusive economy and society.”
 
Ministers in their declaration also issued a “call for development as appropriate of international standards for implementing new technologies alongside agreed safety and privacy protocols.”
 
Ministers also adopted a renewed mandate for the International Transport Forum, which underlines the role of the ITF as a global organisation covering all transport modes. It sets as objectives for the ITF “to serve as a global platform for discussion and pre-negotiation of transport policy issues across all modes”, to “foster a deeper understanding of the role of transport in economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion” and to “raise the public profile of transport policy.” It also spells out the instruments through which ITF will work towards these objectives.

The renewed mandate builds upon the Ministers’ Declaration adopted in Dublin in 2006 which established the International Transport Forum. Ministers meeting in Leipzig recalled the “significant progress made over the ITF’s initial period of development towards meeting the objectives set out in the Dublin Declaration.”

In adopting the renewed mandate, Ministers also highlighted that in view of the positive development of the organisation over the past eight years, “the ITF is well-positioned to carry out its renewed mandate, pursuing its vital role in serving the transport sector and its stakeholders across the world.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Call for Juncker to reverse decision to drop serious road injury target
    June 10, 2015
    More than 40 European organisations concerned with road safety, together with 11 members of the European Parliament have sent a letter to President Jean-Claude Juncker urging him to not drop setting new EU target to cut serious road injuries. The letter was sent yesterday by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), ahead of Thursday's meeting of national transport ministers in Luxembourg where the target was set to be announced. The European Transport Safety Council has learnt that the announcemen
  • Associations News from around the world
    December 4, 2012
    The world’s ITS Associations participated in the ITS World Congress in Vienna, including: New Zealand, which stressed the need for future proof ITS solutions; the Netherlands; Australia called for greater ITS content in road safety strategy; ITS South Africa discussed new strategic opportunities in the country; ITS Nigeria took advantage of the World Congress to stage its global launch; UK ITS professionals were congratulated on their achievements during the Olympic Games by ITS UK; ITS Canada co-hosted a w
  • Open communication platform to support cooperative infrastructure
    July 23, 2012
    Within the European Commission's CVIS project, work is going on to shrink the open vehicle communication platform to make it more market-ready and to remove barriers to the creation of appropriate applications by those external to the project. Here, ERTICO's Zeljko Jeftic and Paul Kompfner and Q-Free's Knut Evensen discuss progress. Development of the open communication platform which will support the various applications developed by the European Commission's (EC's) Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Syste
  • Cowlines app aims to bring MaaS to North America
    May 8, 2019
    Europe is seen as leading the charge as providers battle to gain traction for their Mobility as a Service apps. But that could be about to change with the roll-out of Cowlines in North America It is widely agreed that Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms have the potential to replace a lot of urban private car journeys – more than 2.3 billion of them by 2023 in fact, according to Juniper Research. Implementation of MaaS options is likely to be quicker in Europe than in the US for a number of reasons (