Durant on transport: ‘time to deliver’

Date: 05/12/02

By Karen Carstens

Isabelle Durant is a woman with a mission: to make getting around Europe cleaner, safer and more efficient. The tough question is 'how?'

IN A perfect world, Isabelle Durant envisages that environmental and safety concerns will top the legislative agenda of policymakers trying to tackle transport issues for an increasingly mobile EU.

Of course, Belgium's Green transport minister knows such a world does not exist and that she must strive to strike a balance between such concerns and the economic pressures that will also weigh upon her counterparts when they gather this week in Brussels for a two-day transport Council (5 and 6 December).

Still, Durant, a trim and energetic 48-year-old who has held the dual posts of Belgium's deputy prime minister and transport and mobility minister since July 1999, is optimistic about reaching an agreement on the European Commission's 'single sky' initiative.

As its name denotes, it aims to do away with air traffic borders in Europe, centralising and harmonising the continent's air traffic control network in the process.

Several member states, such as France, were wary at first of the initiative because they feared that public bodies in this area would be forced to privatise.

But the Commission changed its tune and decided that member states will be left with the choice to privatise or not.

With this issue out of the way, Durant sees no problem with member states giving single sky a green light for take-off.

'I hope it will be possible to reach an agreement,' the Ecolo party member said in her airy Rue de la Loi office, an oasis of calm featuring - as one might expect for a Green - lots of large leafy potted plants. 'For us, that [privatisation] is unacceptable.'

Other member states have worried about their military flight facilities being affected by centralised civilian air traffic control centres, but this is of no concern to Belgium, she claimed.

Then there is last month's European Court of Justice ruling on the 'open skies' agreement, which was followed by strong words from Loyola de Palacio, the transport and energy commissioner, demanding that member states scrap bilateral aviation pacts with the United States and let the Commission renegotiate a new EU-wide deal.

'In principle, this could be a good thing,' Durant said. 'But we are waiting for a more effective system of monitoring to be put in place because we don't want to give the Commission such a big mandate without having a say in the matter. I don't say 'no', I say 'why not?'. But the member states must be included in the whole process - it is important that we follow this discussion.'

This is especially because Durant feels that the EU's executive has been rather evasive to date on how exactly it wants to go about taking the lead in this matter.

'It's all too vague - what is the goal, what are the methods, how will this be discussed with the Americans?'

De Palacio is scheduled to present the Commission viewpoint to the transport ministers, so perhaps this will provide more clarity for Durant and her fellow ministers. Of particular concern to the Belgian minister is creating an appropriate framework for the debate - including security and environmental matters.

'The idea is to reinforce the European legislation on this issue. It cannot only be a commercial discussion.'

For example, in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington - a period which coincided with Belgium's EU presidency - Durant worked with the Commission on crafting a new EU air safety regulation. 'The Commission and the Council reacted very quickly, but the European Parliament unfortunately did not,' she said.

Another issue is aircraft noise reduction. Durant fought for an EU-wide ban on hush kits that was approved in September 2001 by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organisation.

These are devices used primarily on older US aircraft to reduce noise - but they do not do this sufficiently as far as most member states are concerned. Washington was not amused - saying this would effectively bar planes from the EU.

Durant would also like to see the introduction of an EU-wide kerosene tax. According to Eurostat, transport was responsible in 1999 for 29% of CO2 emissions in Europe (24% came from road transport alone), and was predicted to increase to 40% by 2010.

'We have no tax at all on kerosene. This is not normal.

'You can't go to Johannesburg and make all these grand statements about improving the state of the global environment and then not deliver at home. One must be consistent.'

The problem is that many modes of transport are just too cheap: 'We need to change the nature of demand,' she explained. For example, one of Durant's staff members recently visited Morocco to look into why shrimp caught off the Belgian coast is flown to the Maghreb country to be peeled before being returned to Belgium to land on dinner plates the same day.

Durant's stance is that operators will continue to use inefficient and even dangerous means of transport unless the reasons they have for doing so are nipped in the bud. Disasters, like the Prestige oil spill off Spain's north-eastern coast, could thus be avoided. 'We need to be proactive rather then reactive.'

In this vein, Durant is hosting a seminar in Brussels on 16 December on 'Managing the Fundamental Drivers of Transport Demand'. The get-together aims to promote debate between transport legislators and environmentalists and identify key determinants of transport demand. The seminar's findings will then be reported next April to the 50th anniversary meeting of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport.

The upshot for Durant, who is its current president and will chair the meeting: 'Much remains to be done.'

Interview with Isabelle Durant, Belgium's deputy prime minister and minister for transport and mobility.