The 1st IRU/EU Presidency Road Transport Conference and Ministerial Meeting ended today with a Ministerial Declaration for a genuine Public-Private Partnership to achieve more efficient, safe, and sustainable road transport.

Brussels – The 1st IRU/EU Presidency Road Transport Conference and Ministerial Meeting on “Efficient, Safe and Sustainable Road Transport for the Future” held today, brought together some 400 political, transport and trade leaders from all 27 EU Member States to discuss a common approach to implementing better road transport priorities and policies in Europe.

Opening the historic conference, IRU President, Janusz Lacny said “I am certain that this event will increase the required cooperation between the road transport industry represented by the IRU and the European Union Member States and the EU Institutions. It is obvious that it is only through cooperation and a true public private partnership that we will be able to have more efficient, safe, and sustainable road transport for the future…By working together for a better future we can overcome the present economic crisis and financial difficulties in the various EU Member states and realise all of our common economic, social, and environmental objectives”.

The fruitful Ministerial meeting, held in parallel to the conference, resulted in the signing of a Ministerial Declaration to coordinate efforts to: work in partnership with the commercial road transport industry; achieve further at source reductions of its environmental footprint; coordinate national and regional transport policies to develop and maintain high quality infrastructure while aiming to remove existing barriers to the free movement of people and goods; integrate the different transport modes into a highly efficient and competitive European transport system, pursue a well balanced social policy for commercial road transport; and promote harmonised and business friendly enforcement of all EU road transport rules.

Fully in line with the Ministerial Declaration, Conference participants adopted a Declaration concluding that constructive cooperation in public-private partnerships should allow for the implementation of: transport policies that enable market-driven free modal choice; a well directed and funded infrastructure policy; more secure commercial road transport through the provision of information about the location of secure parking areas; a single EU-wide enforcement space to fight crime; innovative technologies and practices as well as vocational training; the Smart Move campaign which aims to double the use of bus and coach transport.

On this occasion, the IRU also awarded Etienne Schouppe, Secretary of State for Mobility, Kingdom of Belgium and host of the Conference, the IRU Order of Merit in recognition of his exceptional work in promoting cooperation between EU Governments and the national and international road transport industry and renewed its commitment to road safety in the near- and long-term future by resigning the European Road Safety Charter.

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See the Conference highlights 

Press contact: Juliette Ebélé, +41 22 918 27 07, Press@iru.org