EU Policy Areas

Transport

The transport sector of the economy accounts for over 10% of the EU’s gross domestic product and employs some 10 million people. The Common Transport Policy is one of the cornerstones of the building of Europe and was provided for in the original Treaty of Rome of 1957.

However, for nearly thirty years the Council of Ministers was unable to translate the common transport policy into action. It was only in 1985, when the Court of Justice ruled that the Council of Ministers had failed to act, that the Member States had to accept and implement the policy.

In 1992, the Treaty of Maastricht reinforced the political, institutional and budgetary foundations for transport policy. This Treaty also introduced the concept of the trans-European network which made it possible to plan for transport infrastructure at European level with the help of EU funding.

The second Transport White Paper, adopted by the Commission in September 2001, sets out the present situation with regard to transport and contains an ambitious action programme comprising approximately sixty measures which must be undertaken between now and 2010. A mid-term review of the White Paper is expected in 2005.