Assessment of CIVITAS Initiative “very positive”, Commissioner Bulc says
Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport, recently responded to a question about the European Commission’s assessment of the CIVITAS Initiative, saying that it was “overall very positive” in the context of making cities safer and more sustainable.
Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport, recently responded to a question about the European Commission’s assessment of the CIVITAS Initiative, saying that it was “overall very positive” in the context of making cities safer and more sustainable.
Commissioner Bulc noted that EU bodies and stakeholders welcome the EC’s support to cities, which includes the reinforcement of CIVITAS within Horizon 2020. She added that evaluations conducted within CIVITAS projects demonstrated positive impacts. While longer-term impacts were more difficult to assess in quantitative terms, qualitative feedback shows that this is also positive.
In terms of the goals set for sustainable urban transport in the 2011 Transport White Paper, Commissioner Bulc mentioned the Impact Assessment conducted by the EC in 2013. This dealt with sustainable urban mobility planning, and provides additional perspective on how and to what extent the goals are being met.
In terms of other initiatives for sustainable urban mobility coming from the EC in the near future, Commissioner Bulc referred to the Urban Mobility Package mentioning the EC strengthening its support to cities by continuing to provide a platform for best practice exchange through CIVITAS, providing EC guidance on numerous topics, and financing innovation in transport through Horizon2020 and the TEN-T / CEF programmes.
The 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy will play a significant role in financing sustainable urban mobility investments across the EU. The bulk of this funding (some € 15 billion) will co-finance the promotion of clean urban transport infrastructure, intelligent transport systems, and improvements to cycling infrastructure.
To see the question and response in full, read DG MOVE’s latest newsletter.
