The European Green Deal – an opportunity for rail

When Ursula von der Leyen addressed the European Parliament in July 2019 asking for a vote of confidence in her appointment as President of the incoming European Commission, her focus on sustainability did not come as a surprise.

Global warming is ‘the’ hot topic in all international forums and its importance is rising. What makes it a singular issue is the way it has stepped out of institutional rooms to massively enter the public debate of citizens around the globe. It is a fact that no other public policy issue is being discussed as much as the tools that national and continental governments should put in place to stop temperatures rising.

What was unique in von der Leyen’s speech was its level of ambition: ‘I want Europe to be the first climate-neutral continent’, she said.

It is true that the recently published proposal for a Climate Law received bad comments from many environmental activists since it provides for climate neutrality to be reached by 2050 only, proposing no stringent mid-way targets. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the Union has made climate change its top priority like no other political body anywhere else. On CER’s side, as a prominent participant in all debates that shape European climate policies, we will do our best to support and realise the ambitions of the Union executive branch.

Active in Brussels since 1988, CER is proud to defend the rail sector on the grounds of its sustainability credentials, which are today making railways a fundamental part of the solution.

In the context of the European Green Deal (EGD), the Commission Directorate-General for Mobility will soon put forward a Strategy on Smart and Sustainable Mobility: we look forward to seeing reflected there a firm stand in favour of redressing all those regulatory imbalances that currently make railways less attractive vis à vis other transport modes.

Other policy initiatives are announced, which we hope will be strong enough to make European mobility move in the right direction: we will see a revised TEN-T Regulation and combined transport Directive, initiatives aimed at increasing rail infrastructure capacity, a revision of the Energy Taxation Directive.

As for gathering more resources for sustainable investments, we also hope that the EGD Investment Plan will bring positive effects. On the one side, we need a quick agreement between the Member States on the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework to secure necessary resources for key budgetary lines like the Connecting Europe Facility or pivotal R&I initiatives like Shift2Rail. On the other side, we hope that additional resources can be re-oriented through appropriate financing: the European Investment Bank will play a key role (and it will soon revise its transport lending policy!) and the Sustainable Finance Action Plan must find ways to have more binding consequences on institutional investors (a new version of it will be made public next autumn).

Much is still to be seen of course, but in the meantime the CER Management Committee met with Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans in February to underscore railways’ commitment to upgrade their technology and the quality of their services. The Commission’s political will is clear and confirmed; if we manage to get the European Parliament and national governments onboard as well, I see a bright green future ahead for Europe!

Photo by SenuScape from Pexels

Category: Blog Digital Revolution Operations Research and Innovation Sustainability

Tags: CER Climate change digital EGD EIB European Green Deal European Investment Bank Green Deal Libor Lochman Shift2Rail smart smart mobility Ursula von der Leyen

About the author

Libor Lochman has been Executive Director of The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) since 1st January 2012.

Prior to taking up this role, Libor was CER's leader of technical affairs (2007-2011) and acted as director of the Railway Test Centre, a facility in Prague which tests European rolling stock, infrastructure and signalling components (2000-2005). Libor has a strong background in Control-Command and signalling systems.