EU POLICIES ON TRANSPORT
By Marco Mazouzi, Marian Cihon, Pawel Warszycki
Transport was one of the first common policy areas of the European Economic Community and has its roots in the Treaty of Rome 1957 since competitive transport systems are vital for Europe’s ability to compete in the world, for economic growth, job creation and for people’s everyday quality of life. Transport connections represent a main pillar of the EU’s economy by e.g. enabling supply chains and a European integration with an internal market. In 2014 the EU’s transport industry employed around 10 million people, accounting for 4.5 % of total employment creating about the same percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (EC 2014 b).
Also public transport can be seen as being in the focus of the European Commission, since, for example, public transport is described by the EC as (EC 2018):
“a good way to reduce congestion and environment and health-harming emissions in urban areas, especially when they [public transport vehicles] run on alternative, cleaner fuels. The European Commission strongly encourages the use of public transport as part of the mix of modes which each person living or working in a city can use”.
Therefore, the policies on transport, created by the European Commission, also largely refer to the area of interest of INTERCONNECT which specifically is a Public Transport.