EN    EN EN 
EN    EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 30.9.2009 
SEC(2009) 1212 final 
  
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
 
accompanying the  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE CO MMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMI TTEE OF THE REGIONS 
 
Action Plan on Urban Mobility 
  
Summary of the Impact Assessment  
  
{COM(2009) 490} 
{SEC(2009) 1211}  
EN 2   EN IMPACT ASSESSMENT EXECUTIVE  SUMMARY 
1. I NTRODUCTION  
The Action Plan on Urban Mobility follows the adoption of a Green Paper on Urban 
Mobility1 on 25 September 2007. The Action Plan is part of the Commission's work 
programme with reference 2008/TREN/036. 
The Green Paper on Urban Mobility identified five main challenges in urban mobility 
and launched a debate on the added value of act ion at EU level to support local, regional 
and national authorities in addressing th e challenges. Although responsibilities for 
addressing these challenges lie primarily with  local, regional and national authorities, 
decisions regarding urban mobility also take place within the framework of EU 
legislation and policy and may in turn aff ect the global environment and free movement 
of persons, goods and services within the EU . The impact assessment investigates what 
the exact added value of EU action could be.  
The impact assessment has been prepared by the Directorate General for Energy and 
Transport of the European Commission. An  Interservice Group, w ith representatives 
from the different Commission services that  have an interest in the action plan, 
participated in its prepar ations. Support was obtained through a study contract. The 
Impact Assessment Board provided opinions on  drafts of the im pact assessment on 23 
July 2008, 1 October 2008 and 4 November 2008.  
The Action Plan on Urban Mobility provides a framework for possible future 
intervention at EU level a nd announces non-legislative meas ures to increase knowledge, 
promote dialogue and exchange of best practice a nd provide incentives to cities. These 
measures will help decision-makers to take better informed decisions and improve policy-making and implementation relevant to urban mobility at all levels. The impact of these measures cannot be easily estimated  in quantitative or qualitative terms. 
2. C
ONSULTATION OF INTERESTED PARTIES  
The consultation of interested parties was divided into two phases. The first phase 
consisted of a consultation to prepare th e Green Paper on Urban Mobility during the 
first six months of 2007. The second phase followed after the adoption of the Green 
Paper, between 25 September 2007 and 15 March 2008.  
The Green Paper on Urban Mobility included 25  questions to steer the consultation and 
focus responses from interested parties. Stak eholders and interested parties were also 
invited to respond to the general issues raised in the Green Paper. In total, 431 written contributions have been received. The input received in response to the consultation has 
been carefully examined. The results from the consultation have been made available
2 
and have been fed into the impact assessment.  
                                                 
1 Towards a new culture for urban mobility - COM(2007) 551. 
2 See: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/urban/u rban_mobility/green_paper/green_paper_en.htm 
EN 3   EN In addition, the European Parliament adopted  a Resolution on the Green Paper on 9 July 
20083 and an own-initiative Report on an Action Plan on Urban Mobility on 23 April 
20094. The European Economic and Social Committee adopted its Opinion on the 
Green Paper on 29 May 20085 and the Committee of the Regions did so on 9 April 
20086. The Committee of the Regions adopted an  Opinion on the European Parliament’s 
Report on 21 April 20097. The Council has also held informal discussions on this 
subject8.  
The overall conclusion from the consultation is that there is broad agreement among 
stakeholders and interested parties that there is a role for the EU in the field of urban 
mobility in the form of actions to support au thorities, operators and other stakeholders 
and interested parties at the local, regional and national levels. While there were varying views expressed about which sp ecific actions at the EU level could add value, the 
consultation has helped to identify 'common ground'.  
The consultation respected the minimum st andards for consultation of interested 
parties
9.  
3. P ROBLEM DEFINITION  
Why do we need an Action Plan on Urban M obility at EU level? The reason is that 
many cities across the EU are confronted with common problems related to sustainable urban mobility, such as high levels of traffic and congestion, harmful emissions and imbalanced development with an impact on social exclusion and economic growth. 
These problems are significant. They are dealt with at local, regional and national levels, according to the subsidiarity principle. 
Policy-makers in the Member States that have joined the EU in recent years face 
specific challenges. Economic development is  leading to rapidly rising car ownership 
and car use. The lack of sufficiently adap ted tools means that the improvements of 
urban transport do not always meet mini mum standards required for sustainable 
development and social cohesion. 
Looking at the initiativ es taken locally across the EU , a picture emerges of broad 
diversification of the policie s, action and financing solutions that authorities use to 
address the problems of urban mobility and transport. Besides fragmentation of approaches, inaction or inappropriate acti on may have an impact across borders. In 
addition it may lead to costly duplication of efforts. 
Consumers have to deal w ith fragmented information systems and non-streamlined 
solutions. Persons with reduced mobility do not always have acce ss on an equal basis 
with others to urban transport. 
                                                
 
3 INI/2008/2041. 
4 INI/2008/2217. 
5 TEN/320 - CESE 982/2008.  
6 CdR 236/2007. 
7 CdR 417/2008. 
8 www.ue2008.fr/PFUE/lang/ en/accueil/PFUE-09_2008/PFUE-
01.09.2008/Informelle_Transports. 
9 COM(2002) 704. 
EN 4   EN Urban transport is also a critical part of the overall transport chain for both passengers 
and freight traffic (the "last mile" problem and the need to  have efficient intermodal 
nodes which are often located in  or near urban areas). The effectiveness of the policies 
on urban mobility developed at local, regi onal and national levels  have therefore an 
impact on the European transport system as a whole, while these authorities don't 
necessarily have the means or the interest  to take this dime nsion into account. 
Without an appropriate exchange and spread  of tested, best pr actice solutions, policy-
makers may develop solutions with unnecessar ily high costs, design policies that take 
insufficient account of experience elsewhere or  propose solutions that could result in 
conflicts with EU prin ciples or legislation. 
4. T HE EU' S RIGHT TO ACT  
The Treaties delimit the range of powers of  the EU. The subject of urban mobility and 
transport falls under Article 70 of the Tr eaty which provides for a common transport 
policy10. Articles 71(c) and 71(d) are relevant to urban mobility and transport. They 
state that for the purpose of implementing Article 70 th e Council and the European 
Parliament will lay down measures to improve transport safety and any other appropriate provisions. Res ponsibility for transport is shared between the EU and 
Member States. The argument s set out below demonstrate that the problem cannot be 
solved in an optimum way by the Member St ates alone (necessity test) and that the 
objectives can be better achieved at  EU level (added value test).  
The right to act at EU level in the field of urban mobility stems from the Commission’s 
obligation to achieve and protect the f undamental goals set out in the Treaty . EU 
legislation and financial instruments directly affect decisions at the local, regional and 
national level in the field of urban mobility . The Commission is therefore empowered to 
ensure that these decisions are in line with  EU legislation and to help authorities to 
implement EU policies and make best use of  EU funding. In addition, actions taken in 
the field of urban mobility at local, regional and national levels directly affects freight 
operators and travellers from other countri es. This cross-border impact justifies EU 
action to ensure smooth functi oning of the single market and proper implementation of 
EU policies and legislation, for example in th e field of the environment, State aid, the 
social agenda or research and development.  
Market failures in the field of urban mob ility make public intervention necessary in 
order to address the problems of congestion, pollution and imbalanced development. The EU has a right to ensure that this public  intervention is in line with EU legislation 
and coherent with EU policies . EU policies in areas other than transport, such as the 
environment, regional policy or energy, have  in the past alrea dy developed measures 
related to urban mobility. Insufficient attenti on has been paid to the possible impact of 
these policies on urban mobility and transport. In some cases, appropriate tools and instruments to support authorities have not been made available, have not been taken up 
                                                
 
10 The Commission can also make specific proposals on the basis of articles other than Article 70. 
For example, to address specific problems rela ted to urban mobility and transport it could use 
articles covering environment policy (Articles 174 and 175) or economic and social cohesion 
(Article 158). 
EN 5   EN or have not taken sufficient acc ount of urban mobili ty issues. It is therefore important, 
in specific cases, to propose actions to strengthen coherence and support 
implementation of such past and present EU initiatives.  
The EU also has a right to act to addre ss those problems where public intervention at 
EU level brings added value.  Without impinging on the powers of the local, regional or 
national authority in charge, the EU can bri ng added value to local action in different 
ways11. The EU can offer authorities a toolbox wi th tried and tested solutions to address 
the risks caused by fragmentation of local , regional and national approaches. The EU 
can help to correct regulatory failures, for ex ample in the form of insufficient collection 
and sharing of market data, which preven ts comprehensive monitoring of relevant 
trends. It can support data and information ex change, offer financial support and launch 
RTD activities at EU level. It can help to promote efficient use of public resources, for 
example by avoiding reinventing the wheel or by joining forces in benchmarking, 
procurement or information provision. It can also help to promote innovation and standards and to create markets for industry.  
5. O
BJECTIVES  
The main policy objectives of the Acti on Plan on Urban Mobility are twofold: 
• to give incentives and s upport to the cities, regiona l and national authorities 
to help them to develop and implement urban mobility policies which contribute to the common objectives  of combating climate change, 
achieving a functioning internal market  for the benefit of businesses and 
consumers and promoting an efficient European transport system, social 
cohesion and well-being; 
• to increase the knowledge ba se for decision-makers at  all levels to help 
them to develop and implement inte grated, well-informed and innovative 
policies which are needed today to solve the very complex and multidimensional issues related to urban mobility.  
6. P
OLICY OPTIONS  
To achieve these two main objectives, a wi de range of possibl e policy options was 
considered. The selection and assessment of policy options started with the compilation 
of an initial list of thirty-one possible po licy options, drawing on various sources. These 
sources include the contributions  that were received to supp ort preparation of the Green 
Paper on urban mobility and during the stakeholder consultation on the Green Paper on urban mobility, work carried out in the fr amework of past EU-funded RTD activities 
and best practice exchange programmes, disc ussions on the Green Paper that took place 
in the EU institutions and suggestions provided by the Commission services.  
                                                
 
11 The basis for the EU action in urban areas is stre ngthened by the Thematic Strategy on the Urban 
Environment (COM(2005) 718), which was mandated by the Council and European Parliament 
through the 6th  Environment Action Programme.  
EN 6   EN This broad approach made it possible to review a wide variety of policy options, 
ranging from a more strategic to a more practi cal level. The list includes options that 
may not seem likely or desirable but that we re put forward by stakeholders. This means 
that some of the policy options might seem problematic, because of the subsidiarity principle or because they might  not seem efficient or effec tive. However, for reasons of 
transparency, they were not excluded in advance.  
Eight possible instruments were identified that  could possibly be used at EU level for 
the implementation of a policy option, for ex ample the monitoring of self-regulation, 
disseminating information, preparing guidelin es, providing financial incentives and 
taking regulatory action. 
Each policy option, together with each instru ment that could possibly be used for its 
implementation, was first screened on subsidiari ty. If an option failed this test, it was no 
longer taken into account and no further anal ysis was carried out. However, if a policy 
option successfully passed th e screening on subsidiarity, it was subsequently assessed 
against efficiency, effectiveness and consiste ncy criteria. The screen ing on subsidiarity, 
efficiency, effectiveness and consistency reduced the number of policy options from 
thirty-one options to eighteen options.  
As a next step, the possible impacts of the eighteen remaining policy options were 
identified. The indicators that were used for this assessment cover mobility, congestion, 
energy, the environment, economic and soci al issues and policy-making. This was 
followed by a selection of the most appropri ate instrument to implement each of the 
eighteen options. This analysis looked at co st-effectiveness, propor tionality, consistency 
with other initiatives a nd administrative burden.  
In a final step, twenty suggestions for possibl e actions at EU level were elaborated. This 
was done by exploiting synergies between opt ions and synergies between instruments. 
In addition, the identity, visibi lity and manageability of th e possible actions were fine-
tuned. No proposals for immediate legislative action are included. It should however be 
noted that this process of  selecting and assessing th e possible actions in no way 
prejudges the contents of action plan and the outcome of impact assessments that might 
be made for specific proposals.  
7. A
REAS OF ACTION  
The following possible actions could be launched through the action plan: 
In the year 2009:  
• Study on access rules for green zones 
• Internet guide on clean and energy-efficient vehicles 
• Web portal to improve access to information on public transport  
• Demonstration project on clean vehicles 
• Information exchange on urban pricing schemes 
• Internet guide on legislation, funding and best practice  
• Setting up an urban mobility observatory 
• Accelerating the take-up of sust ainable urban mobility plans 
EN 7   EN In the year 2010: 
• Dialogue on passenger rights in urban public transport 
• Preparing future funding sources 
• Setting up a forum on urban mobility  
• Energy-efficient driving as part of driving training 
• Upgrading data and statistics 
• Campaign on sustainable mobility behaviour 
• Contributing to international di alogue and information exchange 
In the year 2011:  
• Guidance on safe walking and safe cycling 
• Guidance on sustainable urban mobility and regional policy 
• Study on urban aspects of intern alisation of external costs 
In the year 2012: 
• Guidance on intelligent transport sy stems (ITS) for urban mobility  
• Guidance on urban freight transport  
These suggestions for possible actions formed the basis for the prepar ation of the Action 
Plan on Urban Mobility. During the preparati ons of the action plan the actions were 
further specified, prioritised and politically validated, ta king into account – among other 
things – the available resources.  
8. M ONITORING AND EVALUATION  
The overall impact and success of the Action Plan will depend on active involvement 
and take-up by operators and other stakeholde rs and interested parties at the local, 
regional and national levels. The Commission will monitor the development of urban 
mobility and transport in the EU and the perf ormance of the EU actions launched in the 
framework of the action plan. A review will be undertaken in 2012. The Commission will then assess the impact of the Action Plan and the need to revise it or to launch additional actions.