All news & events

The European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism (TRAN) Committee met on 27 September to discuss the Fit for 55 proposals with EU Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean. The Commissioner presented the legislative proposals that are most relevant for the transport sector including the proposal for a Regulation on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (AFIR) the FuelEU Maritime Regulation and the ReFuelEU Aviation proposal.

The 21st of September marked the fourth anniversary of the provisional implementation of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The Commission reports that since CETA entered into force, total trade flows between the EU and Canada witnessed an increase of 15.3% for goods despite the pandemic. Similarly, trade in agricultural goods increased by 34.7%.

On 17 September, the European Commission announced that it has created a new ‘Wise Persons Group on Challenges facing the Customs Union’, tasked with identifying innovative solutions for the most pressing challenges of the EU Customs Union.

On 23 September, the European Commission's Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis met with EU civil society to present latest developments in EU’s external trade policy, with a particular focus on trade and sustainability, WTO reform, bilateral relations and enforcement.

On 22 September, the European Commission adopted the legislative proposal for the new EU's Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) for the period 2024-2034. The Commission is proposing to improve some of the key features of the scheme to better respond to the evolving needs and challenges of GSP countries as well as reinforce the scheme's social, labour environmental and climate dimension.

A call for proposals launched by the European Commission and CINEA on 16 September under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) makes €7 billion available for projects targeting new, upgraded and improved European transport infrastructure. The objective of this call is to provide funding in order to build a more efficient and interconnected multimodal transport system in the EU.

The Financial Times reported on 21 September that the crisis affecting European road haulage market is set to deepen next year as wages rise and driver shortages worsen. According to Luis Gomez, president of Europe at XPO Logistics, shortages could disrupt Christmas this year and new EU regulations would put further strains on retailers and producers next year.

Last week, the French government announced that it will invest €170 million per year until 2024 in the rail freight industry, in view of doubling rail freight transport by 2030. Among other measures, half of the track access charges will be subsidised, meaning that the current 50% reduction will continue to exist beyond 2021. Next to that, €70 million will be invested into isolated wagons, €47 million into the operation of combined transport services, and another €15 million into railway “motorways”.