Reply to the 18th and 19th annual reports of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 29 September 1973 (16th Sitting) (see Doc. 3327, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 29 September 1973 (16th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Considering the report of its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development in reply to the 18th and 19th annual reports of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) (
Doc. 3327) ;
2. Believing that the provision of cheap, efficient and adequate transport facilities is in many cases the indispensable prerequisite of dynamic regional industrial development ;
3. Aware of the many aspects of the quality of life for today's citizen which are in one way or another closely tied up with transport questions, and stressing the need for initiatives, in particular in defining standards for noise and exhaust fumes from vehicles, and determining authorised weight and widths ;
4. Holding that ECMT has a special role to play in that it enables European Ministers of Transport to consider major transport questions in a European framework,
5. Warmly welcomes the progressive development by ECMT in recent years of international studies designed to assist Ministers in taking decisions on transport problems so intractable and urgent that confrontation of different national experiences is an indispensable tool in reaching appropriate solutions ;
6. Believes that the longer term efficiency of international rail haulage of freight might be seriously prejudiced if there were to be further delay in the introduction in Europe of a standardised system of automatic coupling for goods wagons engaged in international traffic, and further believes that both the demands of efficiency and of protection of the environment call for greater urgency on the part of ECMT in the development of swop-bodies and combined rail-road transport ;
7. Reiterates its view that it is urgent for ECMT, in liaison with the European Conference of Ministers of Regional Planning, to make a new detailed study of the needs of Western Europe in the field of major trunk road communications, whether in the framework of the so-called "E" road network or otherwise ;
8. Reiterates its view that one of the main aims of a transport policy should be to contribute to economic and social development, and to promote a better distribution of population and of economic activities among the regions as part of a European policy for regional planning and protection of the environment ;
9. Expresses the hope that ECMT will intensify its efforts to achieve this aim, in particular by establishing working contacts and mutual consultation with the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning ;
10. Records its grave concern at the increase in the number of those killed and injured in road accidents; in this context governments would seem to lack a sufficient sense of the urgency which attaches to bringing into force the provisions of the new European Highway Code not only from the point of view of transport efficacy, but also from that of saving human lives ;
11. Welcomes in particular the recommendation adopted on 14 June 1973 by ECMT on the compulsory use of safety belts, and hopes that it can be implemented in the Council of Europe member States as soon as possible ;
12. Having regard to the ever-increasing spread of private car ownership, the progressive exhaustion of the different possibilities for taking further classical measures to improve urban traffic flows and the difficulties being encountered in financing adequate urban public transport, believes that the problem of growing traffic congestion in urban centres is one which risks assuming dramatic proportions in the relatively near future, to say nothing of the cost in the fields of environment and of the quality of life, and calls on ECMT to develop its studies of possible new solutions in this field ;
13. Welcomes the setting up of "Action 33" on methods of ultra-high-speed inter-urban transport, but underlines the need for the European Civil Aviation Conference to be fully associated with this work ;
14. Expresses the hope that ECMT will inform it in due course of the follow-up it has given to the proposals to which the present resolution makes reference, and which are further developed in the report mentioned in paragraph 1 above.
