The European transport policy: Its main issues

The paper focuses on a limited number of European transport policy issues, that nevertheless are probably the most relevant ones. Given the great complexity of the transport sector (several competing modes, infrastructure and services, public and private players, efficiency and equity objectives, etc.), and the diverse impact of the European policy in different countries and at different times. The issues are selected as for a) their acknowledged economic and political importance, b) their relevance across transport modes. An overview of the EU transport policy principles is also provided together with an assessment of the consistency of actual policy actions with those principles. The selected issues are: (i) planning and promotion of new infrastructure; (ii) competition and regulation policies; (iii) environmental policies.