Dear Minister, Honourable speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen ... - EBU

Dear Minister,Honourable speakers,Ladies and Gentlemen,We are pleased to welcome you to our annual seminar. This year’s seminar will be dedicated to“Greening Transport & Inland Navigation”.The European Commission last summer released its Communications on Greening Transport andStrategy for the internalisation of external costs. The communications intend to introduce initiatives tokeep mobility sustainable and to encourage transport users to switch to cleaner vehicles or modes andto use less congested infrastructure in order to avoid the negative effects of transport.The Commission therefore intends to put forward two different types of initiatives to redouble its effortto make transport greener and more sustainable. The first type intends “getting the prices right”through internalisation of external costs of transport in a tailor made approach by mode of transport.This type of measure should be accompanied by regulatory instruments, infrastructure measures andresearch and development measures.Three weeks ago the European Commission came up with its Green Paper on the TEN-T policy,setting out the future challenges of its policy for a trans-European transport network (TEN-T). TheCommission expresses the ambitious aim to contribute more effectively to objectives aimed atcombating climate change and to support Europe's increasing international role through betterinfrastructure connections with its neighbours and the wider world, for which .According to the Commission the integration of all transport modes and intelligent transport systemscan be strengthened if TEN-T policy provided a basis guaranteeing efficient and safe transportservices reflecting the future demands of citizens and economic operators.Sustainable transportThe aim of the European policy is to support cleaner modes and the use of less congestedinfrastructure. Therefore a stimulation policy is needed in favour of those modes that contribute mostto the realisation of this policy. The waterways in Europe, which mostly are existing natural rivers,dispose over capacity to absorb a much higher volume of transports. In connection with the positiveeffects in terms of external costs a switch to inland navigation offers a double advantage.Transport is the key to the economy and the development of Europe. It is therefore important tomitigate the negative effects of transport as much as possible. The concept of “sustainable mobility” inthe heart of the European transport policy deserves full support.The German Planco institute recently in co-operation with the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkundeconducted a study on the economical and ecological comparison of transport modes. According to this

study inland navigation in the sum of all external costs generated by climate change, noise, accidentsand emission holds the most positive record of the compared modes of transport.Consequently a sustainable transport policy should focus on encouraging transport users to switch tocleaner modes of transport and less congested infrastructure such as waterways.The Seminar will focus on the different aspects of the European transport policy and prove thepossibilities of inland navigation within this concept.We are very pleased that a number of high level speakers and panelists will focus on these differentaspects of the European transport policy and prove the possibilities of inland navigation within thisconcept.Before starting with the presentations we are honoured to welcome the Deputy Minister of Transportof the Czech Republic, Mr. Pavel Škvára, who will officially open our Seminar on behalf of the CzechPresidency.Dr. Philippe GruloisPresident EBU25 February 2009