CIVINET’s webinar on the transition to a long-term sustainable transport system
The motivation for organizing webinar held on May 9, 2023 was the adoption of an exploratory opinion on the transition to a long-term sustainable transport system at the plenary session of the EESC held in April 2023. The Swedish presidency, which currently chairs the Council of the EU, believes that it is necessary to speed up this transition, so that the EU leads the way in the green transition. The webinar brought together 60 participants from Croatia, Serbia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc. The webinar was organised by ODRAZ, the secretariat of the CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-SEE network, in cooperation with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
“Preparing an opinion on the topic of transition to sustainable transport systems was certainly not an easy task, given that it covers a wide spectrum – areas such as different modes of travel, energy and fuel, but also all three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, environmental and social” said Lidija Pavić-Rogošić, who was the president of the study group that worked on the opinion.
Speakers:
- Stefan Back, EESC
- Mateusz Szymanski, EESC
- Pedro Homem de Gouveia, POLIS Network
- Tim Asperges, City of Leuven.
Moderator: Lidija Pavic-Rogosic CIVINET/EESC
Stefan Back, rapporteur and Mateusz Szymanski, co-rapporteur, presented the opinion, with particular attention to the social dimension of future mobility.
“The transition to a long-term sustainable transport system must be implemented so that citizens and businesses, including industry and the transport sector, accept the goal of reducing emissions by 90% in the transport sector by 2050, as well as the ways and means to achieve this” mentioned Mr. Back.
Mateusz Szymanski presented EESC’s overarching social goals in the area of transport:
- A dynamic and ambitious policy which includes tackling congestion and lack of access which can isolate individuals – especially elderly or disabled people – in their homes, and
- Involving civil society actors – the field of transport requires stronger and more inclusive involvement of civil society in both policy making and policy implementation.
He also mentioned main themes/priorities: Balance, Accessibility, Adaptability and Policy creation/planning process.
In the second part, attention was put to sustainable urban mobility. Pedro Homem de Gouveia from POLIS network talked about how NOT to transform urban mobility and warned of lessons learned from European frontrunners in urban mobility.
At the end, a good example of planning and implementing measures for better quality and greener mobility in the Belgian city of Leuven, was be presented by Tim Asperges.
This was followed by a short discussion with the participants and closing remarks by the speakers.
The programme is available HERE.
Recorded webinar is posted on ODRAZ’s you tube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNek4obnu6g
Presentations are posted on CIVINET’s website https://civinet-slohr.eu/hr/multimedija/prezentacije
EESC opinions:
- TEN/795 The transition to a long-term sustainable transport system
- TEV/766 New EU urban mobility framework
- TEN/765 – Revision of the Directive on intelligent transport systems
- TEN/774 The importance of public transport for Europe’s Green Recovery
- TEN/747 Intermodal transport and multimodal logistics – making modes complementary in greening transport
- TEN/745 Social challenges of greening maritime and inland waterway transport
- TEN/729 – Strategy for sustainable and smart mobility
- TEN/666 – Sustainable mobility for Europe
- TEN/643 – Clean, competitive and connected mobility for all
- TEN/609 – Decarbonisation of transport
- TEN/661 – Role of transport in realising the sustainable development goals and consequent implications for EU policy-making
Find out more about the activities of the CIVINET network here: https://civinet-slohr.eu/hr/english/