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Maersk and MSC have announced this week they have mutually agreed to terminate, effective in January 2025, the present 2M alliance. Both companies are expected to pursue their individual strategies.

The European Commission published this week a factsheet summarising the EU actions in solidarity with Ukraine after Russian’s invasion. Since February 2022, the EU, Member States and European financial institutions have been making available up to €49 billion in financial, humanitarian, emergency budget and military support to Ukraine.

In February, the negotiating teams form the European Parliament, Council and the Commission will meet again in trilogues in view of reaching an agreement on the remaining files of the Fit for 55 Package.

The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg have published a joint non-paper calling for an ambitious revision of the emission standards for heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) which they consider to be much needed to contribute to a reduction of the emissions of road transport in line with the Paris Agreement, the European Climate Law and Member States targets under the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR). The four Member States highlight that this review is an opportunity to abate emissions in the transport sector, as they are currently not on a Paris Agreement aligned trajectory.

World Customs Day was celebrated on 26 January. On this day, 21 Trade Associations, members of the European Commission's Trade Contact Group (TCG) issued a joint statement congratulating customs worldwide, subscribing to this year's theme of World Customs Day – ‘Nurturing the Next Generation: Promoting a Culture of Knowledge Sharing and Professional Pride in Customs’.

On 9 January, the UK Department for Transport launched the freight innovation fund (FIF), worth £7 million, which will go up to 36 SMEs over 3 years, with the aim to help them roll out new technology and ways of working to unlock potentially huge efficiencies and emissions reductions across the sector.

On 19 January, CLECAT attended the kick-off meeting of the ZEFES (Zero Emission flexible vehicle platforms with modular powertrains serving the long-haul Freight Eco System) project, at the VUB in Brussels. The project started on 1st January and is expected to end around mid-2026.

On January 9, European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič met with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, along with NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris in London to discuss the progress made in addressing the issues raised by Northern Ireland's companies and communities.

Ukrainian Railways transported more than 150 million tons of cargo last year, a drop of 52,1 per cent compared to 2021. Despite the considerable decrease the company considers the results positive, highlighting that grain transport volumes have remained relatively high.