ETA participated in the public consultation on the Roadmap on the next EU Strategy for Sustainable and Smart Mobility. The strategy should ensure that the Union develops a transport sector fit for a clean, digital and modern economy.
A key element of the upcoming strategy will be the production and deployment of sustainable alternative transport fuels. In parallel, the Commission wants to adapt the existing legislation like the 2014 Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive and the 2013 Trans-European Transport Network Regulation to preserve coherence and increase the impact of these policy and legislative initiatives.
Concerning the EU Strategy, ETA advocates for technology neutrality, as it is still unclear what the best fuel option will ultimately be. So far, not one of the existing technologies has clearly come out as the one that will represent the future and satisfy all the criteria related to the reduction of emissions. This technology neutrality should be complemented with the right Research and Development funding and the simplification of administrative procedures to facilitate the participation of innovative companies in these funding calls.
These innovative companies, or early adaptors should have legal certainty that their investments in green tugs are not put into risk with a sudden change of legislation concerning alternative fuels. Furthermore, early movers should be encouraged and such positive behaviour needs to be supported.
Finally, ETA underlined the essential role which digitalization will have in the coming years and how this, together with safety should be at the core of the EU Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.
This document is expected to be published before the end of the year and should be the political foundation for a series of legislative initiatives on different fields like alternative fuels infrastructure or transport public investment.
You can find the ETA response to this public consultation here.
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