European Commission
Kallas

The Commission Vice-President responsible for transport, Siim Kallas visited Ankara to enhance transport cooperation between the EU and Turkey. In line with the Commission "positive agenda", Vice-President Kallas discussed the establishment of a roadmap for EU transport relations with Turkey, including regular high-level meetings and the establishment of a structured dialogue with Turkish authorities.

More

Importance of ports for economic recovery and jobs

Sea ports play an important role facilitating the European Union's external trade (90% of the total, in terms of weight) and internal market exchanges (40% of the total). They provide a service to many other industrial sectors and are nodal points of inter-modal logistic chains of key importance for the sustainable growth of transport in Europe.

European ports are also important job generators. At EU level, the extent of the employment effects of port activity (direct, indirect, induced and related activities) represents million of jobs [2 MB] and a significant contribution to economic growth (GDP).

In the perspective of the economic recovery, there is a question of ensuring that economic growth and the creation of jobs are not hampered by constraints in ports and in the links to and from them. Good port services are of key importance for reinforcing the competitiveness of European export companies in world markets.

However, the development of ports and the integration of ports in wider logistic chains remain uneven at European level. Some European ports are important generators of added value and employment at the local, regional, national and even European levels. They serve hinterland areas that go far beyond national boundaries. Some other ports are lagging behind in terms of efficient use of available facilities, reliability in the handling of freight and passenger's services and contribution to sustainable transport effort.

The disparities of performance between different European ports affect the distribution of cargo flows and on the organisation of logistic chains across Europe.

Poor-performing ports represent a missed opportunity – and wasted resources – for the creation of added value and jobs for the concerned regions. Moreover, ports are key nodal points of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). Poor-performing ports represent a problem for the smooth functioning of the whole network.

More

Speech delivered by Vice-President Siim Kallas at the hearing of the TRAN committee on the TEN-T guidelines

More

Vice-President Siim Kallas gave the keynote speech at the Drink Driving Seminar organised by the European Transport Safety Council (ETCS). The Commissioner reiterated the importance of working together with stakeholders and Member States to reduce road fatalities, at a time when the rate of decline in road deaths in Europe has slowed down markedly. He particularly condemned drink driving practices which remain a major killer on EU roads.

Ladies and gentlemen

Each year, European roads are the scene of an unacceptable number of fatalities.

Last month we received the latest annual figures for 2011.

They give me particular cause for concern because the rate of decline in road deaths in Europe has slowed down markedly.

This is a worrying change in the trend, given our previous successes in getting the numbers down.

But a trend that has not yet changed is that drink driving remains a major killer on our roads today.

More

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas, today set out the Commission's priorities for passenger ship safety. The keynote speech was delivered at a major passenger ship safety conference in Brussels, hosted by the Commission, to launch a consultation with stakeholders on the priority actions to come.

Vice-President Kallas said: "Tragic accidents, from the Titanic, to the Estonia or the Costa Concordia, put ship safety in the spotlight. There are always lessons to learn from such disasters. But we are not just waiting for the next accident to happen. It would be foolhardy merely to respond after the event. The EU has the toughest ship safety rules in the world and this is the result of a process of continuous improvements, proactive and preventative measures to raise maritime safety standards."

More

More than 20 national signalling and speed control systems now operate in Europe. Unfortunately, they are not mutually compatible. These technical inefficiencies are a major barrier to the rapidly growing market in rail freight, where the greatest potential comes from cross-border traffic. They are also holding back the development of the wider European transport network.

More