Greek EU Commissioner-designate: transport and tourism are fundamental pillars of sustainable prosperity and competitiveness

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 11. 05. 10:05

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Europe needs a new plan for sustainable prosperity and competitiveness, the development of transport and tourism are fundamental pillars to achieve both – said Apósztolosz Dzidzikósstasz, the Commissioner-designate responsible for sustainable transport and tourism of the European Commission, at the hearing of the European Parliament’s committee on Monday in Brussels.

According to the Greek commissioner-designate, concrete transformational measures are needed, which are based on the future clean industrial agreement. He believed that when developing an EU industrial action plan for the automotive sector, the needs of the entire value chain should be taken into account, from securing critical supply chains to affordability, from refueling and charging infrastructure to automation and the full exploitation of data.

“All transport-related industries must be protected, reducing dependencies, creating a level playing field and achieving climate objectives. Not only in the automotive industry, but also in maritime transport, where the historic European industry must be revived”

– he underlined.

He drew attention to the fact that transport is the only sector whose emissions continue to increase compared to 1990. “In order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, we must implement the legislation already adopted and encourage the greater use of zero-emission cars and cleaner heavy vehicles,” he added.

If elected, the commissioner-designate wants to accelerate the emission reduction of corporate vehicle fleets, helping cities to fight air pollution, at the same time creating a used car market for consumers and making zero-emission cars more affordable.

Dzidzikósstasz stood up for the EU plan, according to which the sale of polluting cars must be phased out by 2035.

He pointed out that achieving zero emissions will be more difficult for air and sea transport, so the use of sustainable fuels should be supported. He added: in order to support the decarbonisation of the sector, he will come up with a sustainable transport investment plan in 2025.

He also said that during his mandate he would focus on completing the trans-European transport network, TEN-T. The railway is the central element of the TEN-T, one of the greenest modes of transport, completing the railway network and connecting cities with high-speed rail is a top priority – he underlined.