The European Commission, the Lithuanian Presidency on Behalf of the Council of the EU and the IRU Agree to Jointly Tackle Challenges and Further Improve Road Transport Efficiency to Support Growth

Vilnius, Lithuania (ots/PRNewswire) -

Discussions at the 3rd IRU/EU Road Transport Conference today
centred on further improving efficiency in road transport. There was
agreement that effective solutions totoday's challenges will help
stimulate growth. Participants also called for international trade
facilitation agreements such as the UN TIR Convention to be fully
respected by all signatories.

The 3rd IRU/EU Road Transport Conference
[http://www.iru.org/en_irueu3 ], "The Road Transport Market -
Competitiveness & Partnership. Transforming Challenges into Effective
Solutions for Growth", held today in Vilnius, Lithuania, brought
together some 200 political, transport and trade leaders from all 28
EU Member States and representatives from many Eastern Partnership
states. The Conference, jointly organised by the Lithuanian
Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European
Commission and the International Road Transport Union, focused on the
main challenges facing the road transport industry, and how to
transform these challenges into effective solutions for growth,
through coordinated action at political and industry level, and
called for all signatories of the UN TIR Convention to fully respect
their obligations under the agreement.

Keynote speakers included the Lithuanian Minister of Transport,
Rimantas Sinkevicius, the Vice President of the European Commission
responsible for transport, Siim Kallas, the IRU President, Janusz
Lacny and DG MOVE Director General, Matthias Ruete, amongst others.

There was a broad consensus among Conference participants that the
establishment of increased cooperation and partnerships will be
essential in order to meet the ongoing challenges that the sector
faces and thereby stimulate growth in the EU, as well as ensure an
even more efficient road transport sector. Participants thus
affirmed, in order to deliver the economic growth and social and
environmentally sustainable mobility needs of all EU companies and
citizens:

- the importance of commercial road transport as a vital production tool to
support growth;
- the desire to continually improve road safety and the security of the
transport chain through high quality training, information systems and high quality
enforcement across Europe;
- the imperative need for efficient crossing of external borders and thus for
ensuring that all related international conventions are fully respected;
- the need for continuously improving traffic flows and ensure sustainable
mobility through the best use of existing infrastructure, filling the missing links as
well as concluding without delay international passenger transport agreements.

With the view to achieve a more efficient EU road transport sector
to support growth and mobility needs, the Conference addressed the
following points namely to:

- bring pressure on signatories of international trade facilitation treaties
and conventions to ensure that signatories fully comply with their international
obligations in order for trade to flourish thereby underpinning sustained growth and
prosperity;
- focus on amending appropriate weights and dimensions rules to allow
aerodynamic, efficiency gains and road safety improvements for vehicles and equipment,
and to promote efficient connections between modes;
- ensure adequate social conditions in the road transport sector and the
implementation of more harmonised and coordinated inspection regimes in relation to
for example roadworthiness as well as a more harmonised infringements handling,
including the level of fines;
- provide support for the increased use of collective passenger transport in
particular by bus, coach and taxis.

Rimantas Sinkevicius, EU Transport Council President and Minister
for Transport, Republic of Lithuania, said, "That countries want to
have long-lasting and reliable transport and logistics policy across
international borders and invited participants to further develop
more effective and streamlined mechanisms for international road
transport and trade facilitation."

The Vice President of the European Commission, Mr Kallas,
highlighted: "More and more goods are carried on the road between the
EU and our neighbours. This is a good and healthy sign of closer
integration of our respective markets. It will support economic
growth to the benefit of everybody."

IRU President, Janusz Lacny, noted: "It should be remembered that
commercial road transport is the only transport mode which provides
door-to-door service and complements all other modes and so I welcome
the recognition of the need for even closer partnerships with the
road transport sector in order to meet today's challenges. I can only
stress how such close co-operations are necessary to challenge for
instance unilateral decisions taken by countries to change their
compliance with international agreements, such as the United Nations
TIR Convention. Only by working together can we ensure that measures
taken by individuals can be stopped and thus avoid that international
trade and economic development will be curtailed. It should finally
be said that the IRU expects that the increased cooperation will
avoid situations where increasing restrictions and costs or limiting
possibilities for innovation for road transport operators will reduce
competitiveness and reduce the economic viability of the many small
and medium-sized road transport enterprises."

Download Conference presentations, speeches and pictures [http://www.iru.org/en_irueu3
]
See the Conference Highlights video [https://vimeo.com/74620732 ]
Press contact: Juliette Ebele, +41-22-918-27-07, press@iru.org

ots Originaltext: IRU
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de