Mobility is an essential part of everyday day life and affects the wellbeing of European citizens. Alongside with transport, mobility is the backbone of the well-functioning of the EU internal market, fair competition and of utmost importance for European socioeconomic and territorial cohesion, as well as for ensuring accessibility and connectivity of all regions of the EU. It concerns all of us and we therefore have a responsibility to make sure that sustainable, high-quality transport is available all across the EU with no one left behind. This requires that all transport policies take into account different social dimensions of underrepresentation, such as age, gender, socio-economic status or background, health, (dis)ability status, language barrier, employment situation or the region we live in.
At the same time, mobility has a significant ecological footprint, being responsible for over 27% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. While the EUs overall emissions decreased between 1990 and 2019, transport in the only sector whose emissions increased. Moreover, mobility is a major contributor to air pollution by emitting particulate matters and numbers. As outlined in the European Commissions’ Green Deal, the sector needs to cut 90% of its emissions by 2050 and is therefore key for the EU to achieve climate neutrality in 2050 as set out in the European Climate Law. Moreover, the sector needs to undergo a thorough digitalisation process on all levels to embrace the future, which will lead to profound changes in the sector and ensure competitiveness and efficiency, while also providing new opportunities.
The S&D Group therefore welcomes the “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy” of the European Commission, aiming to facilitate these processes and ensuring long term resilience and sustainability of the European mobility sector.
