he European transport, telecommunications and energy ministers meeting, held in Brussels on December, 8 th under the presidency of Dominique Bussereau, the French Minister of State for Transport, was devoted to air, land and maritime transport. In this meeting EU transport ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the development of safe, sustainable transport focusing in a major part on maritime sector.

Sustainability for transport, which was already one of the major issues at the first Transport Council under French Presidency, held in Luxembourg in October, has also mainly focused the second meeting.

EU Maritime Safety and traffic monitoring

The ministers obtained a political agreement on maritime safety (‘Erika 3’) on ship owners’ liability, which will oblige ship owners to have insurance, and on the obligations of flag States, which aims to improve the quality of the Member States’ fleets and will oblige the administrations to track and monitor their fleets at all times.

They also adopted a resolution setting out the operating rules and the modalities for access for non-EU countries to the European Union Long Range Identification and Tracking Data Centre (LRIT). This European system, developed in compliance with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), is aimed at identifying and tracking ships all over the world. It will monitor all ships flying a European flag, improve traffic monitoring off the coasts of the European Union and allow non-EU countries to benefit from the system, subject to a financial contribution.

The ministers testified to their shared will to take greater account of the impact of transport on the environment and adopted conclusions on the "greening transport" package.

Following sustained work in this area, the Presidency was able to present a progress report showing significant advances on the draft amendment of the Eurovignette directive. The intense debates that followed, enabled the identification of some questions that remain to be answered before agreement can be reached on this dossier. Proposed by the Commission on July, 8th, 2008, the Eurovignette Directive is part of the project which aims to enable price setting to factor in the negative impacts of road transport, such as local pollution, noise and congestion.

With regard to road safety, the ministers affirmed their desire to be able to sanction dangerous behaviour by European drivers, such as driving under the influence of alcohol and speeding, regardless of the State in which the infraction was committed, but underlined the need to continue work on establishing an effective system of exchanging information between Member States in the context of judicial cooperation.

Single European Sky

Following the October Council discussions on the technological aspect of the Single European Sky initiative, the ministers reached an agreement on the technical provisions of the regulatory aspect. This aims to improve the effectiveness of European airspace management so that it can cope with the doubling of air traffic forecast between now and 2020, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector.

The day before the Council, Dominique Bussereau had participated in the signature of accession agreements of the biggest European aeronautical companies to the SESAR Joint Undertaking, which will allow the development of a new generation of air traffic management systems. With regard to the extension of the competences of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the ministers agreed on the provisions on air navigation services and took note of the progress on work with regard to airfields.

Lastly, the ministers adopted mandates that will allow the Commission to negotiate aviation agreements with Algeria and Tunisia.