Meeting on 19 April 2007 with representatives of around 20 European Cities to discuss the future of urban mobility in Europe, Commisioner Barrot said that the future Green Paper on urban transport could contain provisions for a harmonized legal framework on traffic management schemes.
Among the topics discussed:
- Currently, national legislation in several countries prevents local government from introducing road charging schemes which could both help limiting congesqtion and bring new and needed source of financing for public transport. Commissionner Barrot would favor giving cities the opportunity to introduce congestion charging schemes. The idea isn’t to impose such a solution to the cities but rather give them the option to do so.
- To make it less expensive to purchase clean vehicles, Commissionner Barrot responded positively to the suggestion of EUROCITIES to allow joint procurement procedures. Not all the cities agree considering local urban transport may require specific solutions.