In the last two decades, EU transport policy has been the subject of periodic assessments and of strategic guidance in the form of White Papers, which have provided policy evaluation and alignment with current priorities and general policy orientations. In 1992, the Commission published a White Paper on the common transport policy, which was essentially dedicated to market opening. Almost ten years later, the 2001 White Paper emphasised the need to manage transport growth in a more sustainable way by achieving a more balanced use of all transport modes. The White Paper accompanied by this impact assessment report identifies the challenges that the transport system is likely to face in the future, based on an evaluation of policies and developments in the recent past and on an assessment of current trends. It then defines a long-term strategy that would allow the transport sector to meet its goals with a 2050 horizon. For the preparation of the White Paper on Transport Policy an inter-service group was set up and meetings were organised between November 2009 and June 2010 in order to collect the views of various services. This Impact Assessment was elaborated by DG MOVE in collaboration with DG ENER and DG CLIMA. In this context, an Impact Assessment Steering Group (IASG)2 was jointly set up and met three times between October 2010 and December 2010. The timing of the proposal development and the key aspects of the proposals (including modelling results) were discussed extensively in the context of these inter-service meetings. The last IASG meeting took place on 14 December 2010. A final version incorporating the comments made during this meeting was circulated on 16 December 2010. (Author/publisher) For more information, see http://ec.europa.eu/transport/strategies/2011_white_paper_en.htm
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