4.2. Rationale and Union added value

Transport is a major driver of Europe's economic competitiveness and growth. It ensures the mobility of people and goods necessary for an integrated European single market, territorial cohesion and an open and inclusive society. It represents one of Europe's greatest assets in terms of industrial capability and quality of service, playing a leading role in many world markets. Transport industry and transport equipment manufacturing together represent 6,3 % of the Union GDP. The transport sector's overall contribution to the Union economy is even greater, taking into account trade, services and mobility of workers. At the same time, the European transport industry faces increasingly fierce competition from other parts of the world. Breakthrough technologies will be required to secure Europe's future competitive edge and to mitigate the drawbacks of our current transport system. The transport sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and generates up to a quarter of all emissions. It is also a major contributor to other air pollution problems. Transport is still 96 % dependent on fossil fuels. It is essential to reduce this environmental impact through targeted technological improvement, bearing in mind that each mode of transport faces varying challenges and is characterised by different technology integration cycles. Moreover, congestion is an increasing problem; systems are not yet sufficiently smart; alternative options for shifting towards more sustainable modes of transport are not always attractive; road fatalities remain dramatically high at 34000 per year in the Union; citizens and businesses expect a transport system that is accessible to all, safe and secure. The urban context poses specific challenges and provides opportunities to the sustainability of transport and for a better quality of life. Within a few decades the expected growth rates of transport would drive European traffic into a gridlock and make its economic costs and societal impact unbearable, with adverse economic and societal repercussions. If trends of the past continue in the future, passenger-kilometres are predicted to double over the next 40 years and grow twice as fast for air travel. CO_(2) emissions would grow 35 % by 2050 Commission White Paper "Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system" (COM(2011)0144). . Congestion costs would increase by about 50 %, to nearly EUR 200 billion annually. The external costs of accidents would increase by about EUR 60 billion compared to 2005. Business-as-usual is therefore not an option. Research and innovation, driven by policy objectives and focused on the key challenges, shall contribute substantially to achieve the Union's targets of limiting global temperature increase to 2 °C, cutting 60 % of CO_(2) emissions from transport, drastically reducing congestion and accident costs, and virtually eradicating road deaths by 2050 Commission White Paper "Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system" (COM(2011)0144). . The problems of pollution, congestion, safety and security are common throughout the Union and call for collaborative Europe-wide responses. Accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies and innovative solutions for vehicles "Vehicles" is to be understood in a broad sense, including all means of transport. , infrastructures and transport management will be essential to achieve a cleaner, safer, more secure, accessible and more efficient intermodal and multimodal transport system in the Union; to deliver the results necessary to mitigate climate change and improve resource efficiency; and to maintain European leadership on the world markets for transport-related products and services. These objectives cannot be achieved through fragmented national efforts alone. Union level funding of transport research and innovation will complement Member States' activities by focusing on activities with a clear European added value. This means that emphasis will be placed on priority areas that match European policy objectives where a critical mass of effort is necessary, where Europe-wide, interoperable or multimodal integrated transport solutions can help remove bottlenecks in the transport system, or where pooling efforts transnationally and making better use of and effectively disseminating existing research evidence can reduce research investment risks, pioneer common standards and shorten time to market of research results. Research and innovation activities shall include a wide range of initiatives, including relevant public-private partnerships, that cover the full innovation chain and follow an integrated approach to innovative transport solutions. Several activities are specifically intended to help bring results to the market: a programmatic approach to research and innovation, demonstration projects, market take-up actions and support for standardisation, regulation and innovative procurement strategies all serve this goal. In addition, using stakeholders' engagement and expertise will help bridge the gap between research results and their deployment in the transport sector. Investing in research and innovation for a greener, smarter and fully integrated reliable transport system will make an important contribution to the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and of its flagship initiative 'Innovation Union'. The activities will support the implementation of the White Paper "Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area - Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system". They will also contribute to the policy goals outlined in the flagship initiatives 'Resource-efficient Europe', 'An Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era' and 'Digital Agenda for Europe'. They will also interface with the relevant Joint Programming Initiatives.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-03 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.