Irish Regions Office Website

July 17, 2008

Urban Congestion & Road Pricing

As the European Commission prepares its forthcoming Action Plan on Urban Mobility, MEPs have called upon the EU to adopt guidelines for the creation of ‘green zones’ and the introduction of road charging schemes regulating access to city centres. A European Parliament resolution entitled ‘Towards a new culture of urban mobility’, adopted on 9 July in response to the 2007 Green Paper of the same name, recommends that the Commission should develop an overall strategy on urban mobility that will result in “more rational use of private cars” and harmonised standards to alleviate traffic congestion. The resolution insists that local authorities must have the responsibility to decide on whether or not such schemes should be established in their towns and cities and should be facilitated in doing so by access to best practice in mobility management. In advance of the forthcoming review of the EU budget, MEPs have also recommended that the EU financing of projects under the Structural Funds needs to be more closely linked to sustainable transport and environmental protection obligations including the mandatory adoption of sustainable urban mobility management programmes for cities of a certain size. Further details: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5597882

Posted by iroronan at July 17, 2008 03:20 PM