Commission has key role in promoting sustainable mobility, says Commissioner
Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin highlighted the European Commission's efforts to promote sustainable mobility, its achievements and its goals following the creation of the European research area (ERA) on 31 January. Speaking at the event 'Towards sustainable urban mobility' in Brussels, which was organised jointly by the European Commission and the European Parliament, Mr Busquin stated that the Commission has played a key role in the emergence of new solutions, such as the development of hybrid motors and combustible batteries, the improvement of the quality of public transport services and the intelligent management of urban traffic, through its financial instrument, the Framework programmes. The Commission has also created two transport advisory groups, the Advisory council for aeronautics research in Europe (ACARE) and the European rail research advisory council (ERRAC), and, as Mr Busquin told CORDIS News, the Commission intends to create a similar group for road transport, although he sees this as a more difficult task. 'We want to set up a body of this kind, but it involves a lot of different actors and businesses that have to agree to pull their resources towards one objective, for example a reduction in emissions. [...] This involves more contacts and is a lot more complex than ERRAC and ACARE,' said Mr Busquin. The Commissioner insisted that new instruments are needed if more progress in sustainable development is to be seen. 'It is not enough to base one's argument on intuition or to compare past experiences, or even to implement a simple transfer of successful policies from one town to another to determine with certainty which will have a long term effect on each new development project. We need to create new instruments capable of predicting the impact of all political decisions on sustainability,' said Mr Busquin. The Commissioner called for cooperation in the form of variable geometry to solve urban mobility problems. He said that candidate countries should also be involved and that research networks should involve citizens, decision-makers and scientists. He also called on Europe's decision-makers to play an active role in addressing urban mobility, saying that 'technological development is not enough; policies should take over today.' Mr Busquin said that it is not enough to do research at national level and that more must also be spent on research at EU level. He said that although a lot of successful projects have been financed under the Framework programmes, they do not all 'hang together', but this will change following the creation of ERA, which will be 'more wide ranging than the Framework programmes'. Referring to the proposals for the next Framework programme, FP6, Dutch MEP Alexander de Roo said that although the Parliament has had some disagreements with the Commission on the proposals, they wholeheartedly support the Commission's proposals regarding sustainable development. He agreed with Mr Busquin on the importance of researchers coming together and added that discussions must also include non-governmental organisations (NGOs), decision-makers, transport ministers, candidate countries and stakeholders. 'We can learn a lot from each other, from good examples,' he said.