Journey ahead will be no easy ride

Date: 21/09/00

By Renée Cordes

LOYOLA de Palacio scored some rather easy victories soon after taking over as Transport Commissioner last autumn, thanks largely to the legwork done by her predecessor, Neil Kinnock. But it has not all been plain sailing since then, as she also inherited some of his most difficult dossiers.

The European Commission's rail liberalisation package needed only minor tweaking before it was ready to go to EU governments for approval. But there is a long way to go before other key transport initiatives - including efforts to improve road safety, lure travellers from roads to rail, revamp the Union's rules governing airlines' take-off and landing slots, and establish working hours for lorry drivers - become a reality.

The Spanish transport chief faces many challenges as she seeks to overcome opposition from industry and, in some cases, her fellow Commissioners to planned reforms affecting nearly all forms of transport.

Relieving congestion both in the skies and on the roads, encouraging greater concern for the environment and making it easier for companies to use more than one type of transport to get their goods to customers are among her priorities.

The Commission is under pressure to emphasise projects which use more than one form of transport in drawing up its new Trans-European Network guidelines. Officials have vowed to focus on improving existing services rather than coming up with new schemes. Some of the 14 'priority' projects have been finished and others are close to completion, but a fully-integrated EU transport network is still a long way off.

Rail remains among the most under-used forms of transport, with much of the Union's freight and passenger traffic clogging up roads and producing enormous levels of carbon dioxide fumes. In 1990, the transport sector accounted for more than one-fifth of the EU's carbon dioxide emissions. Experts warn that this percentage could easily double over the next ten years and that the Union risks missing the climate change targets it signed up to in Kyoto in 1997 unless radical action is taken, and fast.

The same challenge confronts the central and eastern European countries applying to join the EU, which have seen an almost uninterrupted decline in rail cargo over the past five years.

For those who cannot avoid - or still prefer - road travel, the Commission has promised a host of measures aimed at improving safety. These include moves to force car manufacturers to introduce changes in design to minimise crash-related injuries and deaths, and to carry out research which could lead to improvements in driving test standards.

But safety campaigners are less than impressed, saying that they have heard similar promises in the past. They will be watching closely to see whether the Commission follows through on its reform pledges. "The cavalier attitude that is being displayed is wholly unacceptable," says Jean Breen, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council, which has been campaigning for legislation on safer car designs for years.

Another top priority is air travel safety, an issue which was thrust back into the spotlight by the Concorde crash near Paris in July.

Later this month, the Commission is set to unveil long-awaited plans to create a Europe-wide air safety agency with powers akin to those of the US Federal Aviation Administration. This new body would be tasked with certifying aircraft and harmonising safety measures across the EU.

Making the skies safer will also require a complete reorganisation of European airspace, which is still governed by an obsolete system devised during the Cold War. Later this year, a panel of experts is due to come forward with concrete proposals for reorganising air traffic control into a 'single European sky'. The Commission also has the EU airline industry in its sights as it seeks to improve standards of service for travellers, although the carriers insist that they cannot be held to blame for the overcrowded skies and should therefore not be punished for the delays all too often suffered.

Proposals for tough new legislation can be expected from the Commission later this year and next which would set minimum standards for air contracts, oblige airlines to publish regular consumer reports and require that delayed travellers be reimbursed - all part of a promised new passenger rights charter. But the industry will argue that binding legislation is not needed.

The sector has already flexed its muscle by forcing De Palacio to retreat from plans to require European carriers to relinquish 5% of their landing slots at EU airports, and her attempt to reform rules on buying and selling airline slots is also in a holding pattern.

The Commissioner wants to legalise the practice, which is already common at crowded international hub airports, insisting clear rules are needed to ensure this trade is carried out in a fair, transparent manner. Officials also argue that clarity is needed, as the only interpretation so far of the existing rules by a court in the Union was ambiguous. The Com-mission says a new proposal could be ready before the end of this year, but most insiders believe that early 2001 is more realistic.

On the sea, De Palacio's drive to exclude old, unsafe ships from EU waters and ports is steaming ahead, propelled mainly by the industry itself as transport ministers continue to discuss the proposals for new regulations.

When it took over the Union presidency, France vowed to make maritime safety a priority during its six months at the helm, hoping for swift agreement on new measures to prevent more accidents like the Erika disaster which released a toxic oil slick off the coast of France earlier this year.

However, Paris has so far failed to get fellow EU members to speak with one voice, with Greece fighting hard for many exemptions from the planned phase-out of antiquated vessels. The Commission is also likely to come down hard on two countries negotiating to join the Union - Cyprus and Malta - which have poor safety records.

The long-running dispute with Korea over allegations that Seoul illegally subsidises its shipbuilding industry is also chugging along. EU officials are currently preparing for yet another visit to the Korean capital to examine how the yards set prices and whether the charges cover their costs. They will then draw up a report so that industry ministers can decide what action, if any, to take.

Many of them are, however, preoccupied with the expiry of the Union's own subsidy regime by the end of this year - and the question of what new rules should take its place. They may be tempted to use the complaints against Seoul as a pretext for continuing state aid in Europe rather than addressing the issue dispassionately.

But the most high-profile transport issue of all at the moment - the rising price of petrol and the row over fuel taxes which has sparked blockades across Europe - is out of the Commissioner's hands, with national levies on petrol still a matter for individual governments and not the EU as a whole.

The Union executive is, however, examining the whole issue of competition in the sector to see if more can be done to ensure consumers get a fair deal. Given the depth of public feeling on this issue, any Commission initiative would certainly be welcomed.

Article forms part of a survey on transport. Summary of current transport policy and the problems likely to be encountered.