The Danish Presidency has the opportunity in the second half of 2002 to consolidate the advances in European transport and environment policy made during the former presidencies in 2001.
Developments in 2001 raised transport policy high onto the European political agenda. The adoption of the sustainable development strategy by the European Commission and the discussion at the Gothenburg summit together show a powerful new political will developing across Europe to move transport towards sustainability.
The Belgian presidency took the momentum further, by organising a ground-breaking seminar on transport and economy in July 2001, as preparation for an informal transport and environment council on 14/15 September; only the second such meeting since the one organised by the UK presidency in 1997. Under the Spanish presidency, however, European transport policy lost some of its momentum. In the aftermath of the adoption of the long-awaited White paper on the Common Transport Policy (CTP hereafter), the Spanish presidency did little to tackle the weaknesses and pick up on the strengths of the White paper. Sustainable transport has not been very high up op the agenda of the Spanish presidency.
It is now up to Denmark to continue where Spain and its predecessors have stopped and revitalise Europe’s move towards sustainable transport and mobility.
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