Prior to the pandemic, Europe had focused increasingly on reducing the environmental footprint of transport and enhance affordable mobility. The COVID-19 crisis now put a severe strain on the transport sector causing great economic damage. There is a need, across the Union, to recognise the serious impact on businesses across this sector as well as to find ways to reconcile its recovery with sustainability.
Transport in any form has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis: the aviation industry faced a significant decrease in passenger numbers, cancellation of flights and a massive reduction of revenues for airlines. Furthermore, most international trains were cancelled and domestic rail traffic has decreased by up to 90% compared to 2019. Reduced manufacturing impacted the shipping industry in terms of volumes and traffic. The road freight market had to be adapted with the help of green lanes in order to ensure the continuous flow of goods and uphold supply chains across the EU. This is just a small glimpse of the numerous challenges that the transport sector has been facing over the recent months.
The German EU Council Presidency will, therefore, work intensely to overcome these long-lasting consequences of the crisis across all areas of the sector in the next six months. Its core task will be to make mobility in Europe more modern, innovative, and sustainable, while at the same time ensuring that it recovers fully from the crisis and that it builds resilience on the basis of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 outburst.
In the snapshot below, we outline the key legislative and non-legislative initiatives in transport that Berlin will be driving in the next six months. Additionally, we provide a visual overview of the main transport-related meetings and events.
If you are interested in how the transport priorities of the German Presidency may affect your organization, then get in touch.
