EU: Transport Council

Lord Bassam of Brighton
My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport (Douglas Alexander) has made the following Ministerial Statement.

I attended the transport session of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council, held in Brussels on 22 March. The German Minister for Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, Mr Wolfgang Tiefensee, was in the chair.

Two aspects of the Galileo satellite navigation programme were on the agenda.

The presidency and Commission reported to the council on the current difficulties with the concession contract negotiations for the PPP and the impact on the overall development of the project. There has not been any recent progress on the negotiations because of internal problems among the partners in the consortium bidding to run the Galileo PPP. In the light of the delays, the presidency recently convened a meeting with the consortium but no satisfactory solution had been found to the current deadlock. At council, it was therefore necessary to consider what action could be taken to get the process back on track. The bidding consortium has now been given a deadline of 10 May 2007 to take the necessary measures to allow negotiations to move forwards effectively. If the deadline is not met, the Commission will begin to develop alternative options for taking forward the Galileo project. A more detailed discussion on these issues would then follow at the June Transport Council. Council conclusions, acceptable to the UK, were agreed to this end.

The council adopted a decision setting out the framework for third country participation, as associated members, in the Galileo supervisory authority. The decision, with which the UK is content, authorises the Commission to open negotiations with non-EU countries that apply, with final approval resting with the council.

There was unanimous support for an EU-US air services agreement. The presidency reported that, following the most recent negotiations with the US, the proposed text for a first stage agreement had been considerably improved and was a good starting point for reaching a full open aviation area.  However, negotiations should resume quickly to make further progress on a second stage.  A number of Ministers spoke to welcome the agreement. I pointed out that the UK accounts for a 40 per cent share of the EU-US market.  The deal on the table did not go the full way to achieving a fully liberalised open aviation area, so it was essential to have a clear timetable for delivering a stage 2 agreement and have real leverage if the negotiations did not proceed as we wished.  I proposed a mechanism be established for the automatic withdrawal of rights by the EU if an agreement had not been reached within the timetable set down in the draft agreement.  Each member state would decide which rights it would wish to withdraw.  This suspension would apply unless the council agreed unanimously otherwise.  In addition, it was proposed that the start of the agreement be delayed until 30 March 2008 to give airports and airlines more time to prepare.  These points were agreed and are reflected in the council conclusions, which were adopted unanimously.

The council adopted a decision on the signature and provisional application of the agreement reached with Russia on Siberian overflights, including the establishment of a cost equalisation mechanism during the transitional period. We strongly welcome this agreement and support the decision.

There was a debate on the contribution of the transport sector to the Lisbon Strategy. The presidency put questions to member states for this debate, focusing on how to stimulate consumer demand for cleaner vehicles and how to ensure that rail, shipping and inland waterways play their part. Most member states focused on the proven or potential benefits of: taxation measures for vehicles or fuels; alternative fuels (particularly biofuels); eco-driving; eco-labelling; information campaigns to buyers and drivers; and new technologies. The UK was among those which expressed support for the Commission’s proposal for mandatory CO2 limits for cars and light vans, while pointing to the need to work towards even lower limits by 2020. The Commission summarised its plans for sustainable transport, including car CO2 reduction; an action plan for logistics and a green paper on urban transport; and binding biofuels targets.

Under AOB, the Commission presented two recent communications: one on extension of trans-European transport axes to neighbouring countries, including those in Asia and Africa; and the other on the implementation of the SESAR programme for the modernisation of the European air traffic management system. The presidency is aiming for a decision at the Transport Council in June on the establishment of the SESAR joint undertaking.

Among items adopted without debate was an amending regulation on the accelerated phasing-in of double-hull or equivalent design oil tankers.