The European Commission today approved a transport emergency plan to make transport in the EU more resilient in times of crisis. The plan draws lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and takes into account the challenges Russia's military aggression against Ukraine poses to the EU's transport sector. Both crises have had a serious impact on the transport of goods and people, but the resilience of the transport sector and closer coordination between Member States have been crucial for the EU's response to these challenges.
“These challenging and difficult times remind us of the importance of the transport sector in the EU and the need to work on our preparedness and resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic was not the first crisis to impact European transport. Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine shows that it won't be the last either. That is why we must be prepared. Today's emergency plan, based on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and the initiatives taken during that period, provides a strong framework for a crisis-proof and resilient transport sector in the EU. I firmly believe that this plan will be an important driver for the resilience of our transport. Our efforts to support Ukraine have already shown how crucial some of those tools are. I am thinking in particular of the Solidarity Corridors between the EU and Ukraine, which help Ukraine to export its grain.”
10 actions to learn from recent crises
The plan contains a toolbox of 10 actions to guide the EU and its Member States in the implementation of crisis response measures. Key elements of the plan include ensuring minimum connectivity and passenger protection, building resilience against cyber-attacks and testing resilience. The relevance of the green lanes is also emphasized once again. These ensure that freight transport is not delayed for more than 15 minutes at national borders. In addition, the network of contact points in the national transport authorities will be given a greater role. Both have proved crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the current crisis caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The 10 action areas are:
- make EU transport legislation suitable for crisis situations;
- adequately support the transport sector;
- ensure the continuity of the free movement of goods, services and persons;
- the management of refugee flows and the repatriation of stranded passengers and transport workers;
- ensure minimum connectivity and passenger protection;
- exchange transport information;
- better coordination of transport policy;
- enhanced cybersecurity;
- testing emergency scenarios;
- cooperation with international partners.
The pandemic has taught us the importance of coordinating crisis response measures — for example, to prevent trucks, drivers and essential goods from getting stuck at borders, as happened during the early days of the pandemic. The Transport Emergency Plan is based on a number of basic principles to ensure that crisis response measures are proportionate, transparent and non-discriminatory, comply with the EU Treaties and ensure that the Single Market can continue to function properly.
Next steps
With this emergency plan, the Commission and the Member States will respond to the current challenges in the transport sector. The Commission will support and guide Member States in building crisis preparedness in cooperation with EU agencies, by coordinating the network of national contact points for transport and through regular consultations with international partners and stakeholders. In order to respond to immediate needs and to ensure that Ukraine can export grain on the one hand and import the goods it needs on the other, ranging from humanitarian aid to fertilizers, the Commission is coordinating the contact points for the Solidarity Coriddors and the matchmaking platform itself.
Background
With this initiative, the Commission is responding to the Council's call for a contingency plan for the European transport sector for pandemics and other major crises. The preparation of that plan was one of the commitments under the strategy for sustainable and smart mobility. The plan was developed in collaboration with Member State authorities and industry representatives Europese Commissie.
