EBU wel­co­mes the commission´s inten­si­on to boost shift towards sus­tainable modes by the pro­po­sed revi­si­on of the com­bi­ned trans­port direc­ti­ve CTD

We wel­co­me the new approach in the Com­mis­si­on pro­po­sal which aims at refo­cu­sing sup­port on ope­ra­ti­ons that redu­ce by at least 40% the nega­ti­ve exter­na­li­ties com­pared to road-only operations.

In par­ti­cu­lar, the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness tar­get set on Mem­ber Sta­tes to redu­ce by at least 10 % the avera­ge door-to-door cost of com­bi­ned trans­port ope­ra­ti­ons within 7 years, is con­side­red para­mount in the modal shift endeavour.

Mem­ber Sta­tes are expec­ted to sup­port the modal shift in their natio­nal frame­work by regu­la­to­ry or eco­no­mic sup­port. For this pur­po­se, each Mem­ber Sta­te shall adopt a natio­nal poli­cy frame­work for faci­li­ta­ting the upt­ake of inter­mo­dal trans­port and, in par­ti­cu­lar, com­bi­ned trans­port operations.

“The Com­mis­si­on reco­g­nis­ed the short­co­mings of the cur­rent Direc­ti­ve which is main­ly per­cei­ved as a com­bi­na­ti­on of road/rail. Con­se­quent­ly, this does not con­tri­bu­te to a shift towards IWT. The new pro­po­sal sets ambi­tious goals for the Mem­ber Sta­tes. To make modal shift final­ly hap­pen we call upon the co-legislators to keep the ambi­ti­on level high and under­pin this approach by adop­ting appro­pria­te natio­nal sup­port pro­grams for inter­mo­dal trans­port”, EBU’s Secre­ta­ry Gene­ral The­re­sia Hack­stei­ner emphasises.