Bendl leads succesful meeting of EU Transport Ministers

On Monday 30 March Czech Minister of Transport Petr Bendl presided over the meeting of the EU Transport Council.

"I am very glad to able to break some good news to you after today’s Council meeting", with these words Petr Bendl summed up Monday’s Transport Council.

An important outcome of the meeting is that an agreement between the EU and Canada on air traffic has been reached. The final agreement should be ready to be signed already in May this year at the EU-Canada summit in Prague.

The first item on the agenda of the meeting of the EU Transport Ministers was a debate on the proposal for an amendment of the Directive on the charging of heavy goods vehicles (Eurovignette). The main principle behind this arrangement should, according to Petr Bendl, be that "the polluter pays". The amounts to be paid and the precise rules are, however, seen very differently by the individual Member States at present. Therefore, the Czech Presidency came up with a proposal to postpone the validity of the directive by another four years. "The main argument is that in times of crisis this arrangement may make it more difficult for transport companies to run their business. It is, however, very complicated to give a precise estimate of the impact on the individual countries. The difficulty of reaching a compromise between the Member States also plays a role", Minister Bendl said about postponing the validity of the Eurovignette Directive.

Another important part of the meeting was the adoption of the Council's general position to the amendment of the Directive on the working time of drivers. "We have agreed that it is not good for entrepreneurs or individual self-employed drivers to have the same working time rules as employees", Petr Bendl observed and in this respect the current directive should be changed.

The ministers also adopted Council conclusions on Intelligent Transport Systems. Many Member States have already developed these systems on different levels of quality and density. However, it is important to interconnect them in the whole of the EU. This is the aim of the proposal for a directive which will be negotiated in the second half of the Czech Presidency. A key event will be the informal meeting of Transport Ministers, to which Minister Petr Bendl has invited his ministerial counterparts, the Commission Vice-President and Transport Commissioner, Antonio Tajani, and representatives of the European Parliament, which will take place in the north-Bohemian town of Litoměřice in late April (29 April 2009).

During their debates the ministers also addressed the topic of the “aviation package” – i.e. the two proposals concerning air transport – the amendments to the Single European Sky Regulation and to the European Aviation Safety Agency Regulation, and they appreciated the work done by the Czech Presidency in this area.

“The improvements in air traffic management could reduce flight times by 8 – 14 minutes and fuel consumption by 7 – 11 % on average per flight. It is therefore a major step forward for both carriers and citizens. A flight on the Prague-Paris line, for example, will be nearly 10 minutes shorter, saving some 300 kg of fuel. CO2 emissions will be cut by one ton”, said Petr Bendl.

At the meeting, Petr Bendl highlighted the “road package” as one of the major achievements of the Czech Presidency and of the Member States’ negotiations. “This package will make it easier for carriers to do business within the European Union; it will simplify the rules and cut red tape. The package not only represents a significant contribution to the implementation of the slogan “A Europe without Barriers”, but it will also save up to EUR 200 million a year thanks to new carrier registers alone”, said Transport Minister Petr Bendl.

At the working lunch, the ministers spoke mostly about the impact of the economic crisis on the field of transport. The main theme underlying the whole debate was that the crisis may be an opportunity. The ministers presented a number of specific measures, which the individual Member States intend to adopt in order to respond to the crisis. Among these stimuli were measures supporting investments in infrastructure including PPP projects, relocating EUR 500 million to fund projects of trans-European transport networks, reducing the unnecessary administrative burden and barriers to the European single market and also facilitating access to funds, especially via the EIB.