A4-0153/95

Resolution on the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament on telematics applications for transport in Europe (COM(94)0469 - C4- 0226/94)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission communication on telematics applications for transport in Europe (COM(94)0469 - C4-0226/94),

- having regard to its earlier resolutions on the information society and transport policy,

- having regard to the Council resolutions of 24 October 1994 on telematics in the transport sector ((OJ C 309, 5.11.1994, p. 1.)) and 12 December 1994 on the European contribution to the development of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ((OJ C 379, 31.12.1994, p. 2.)),

- having regard to the Commission communication of 19 July 1994 entitled 'Europe's way to the information society' (COM(94)0347),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the opinions of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy (A4-0153/95),

A. having regard to the growing importance of telematics applications in the transport sector,

B. whereas the benefits for users of telematics services have not yet been sufficiently examined,

C. whereas Europe must not lag behind in enhancing its technological capability, since the latter is of crucial importance for its economic, social and cultural development, and for environmental protection,

D. having regard to the need for a coherent, solidly based European strategy in this area,

E. having regard to the potential which telematics applications in the transport sector offer in terms of the European economy, the pre-eminence of European research, and the impact on employment,

F. whereas sustainable mobility is of the highest priority of the common transport policy,

G. whereas the trans-European networks and demonstration projects relating to telematics applications in transport need to be dovetailed,

H. whereas neighbouring Central and Eastern European countries, the EEA countries and other neighbours need to be involved in planning and research in the area of transport telematics,

I. having regard to the existing technologies and expertise available in a number of Member States,

1. Welcomes the moves being made by the Commission to support telematics applications in the transport sector by promoting European pilot projects and basic services;

2. Asks the Commission to revise the action plan so as to remove the existing shortcomings; thus, for example, there is a need for additional backup studies to examine the benefits of telematics applications for service users and studies on data protection, competition, product liability and calculations of the potential market which the new telematics products represent;

3. Recommends that, as regards telematics applications in the transport sector, the effects on the physical and mental health of transport users be carefully considered and duly taken into account;

4. Proposes in this connection that a standing working party on telematics be set up, consisting of independent experts who would seek to coordinate thinking, assess projects in progress, and make annual reports to Parliament and the Commission;

5. Proposes that wider use be made of existing forums such as the ECMT and the all-European transport conferences, in order to hold coordinated discussions on the objectives of transport telematics; believes that these forums should afford an opportunity for service providers and users, researchers and decision-makers, associations and so forth to discuss transport problems as a whole, not just telematics services or trans-European networks, and assist decision-taking;

6. Calls on the Commission to submit a draft Directive on standardization in the area of telematics applications in the transport sector, to be based on the findings of the CEN and the work of the ISO;

7. Recognizes that isolated pockets of technology are an absurdity and that the aim therefore has to be to make all basic components compatible and interoperable and provide a GSM system interface;

8. Calls for telematics projects relating to integrated multimodal transport, non-motorized personal transport, communal transport, local public transport, and environment-friendly modes (rail, sea, and inland waterway transport) to be treated as a priority;

9. Calls on the Commission to encourage private investment in the field of telematics and to support the use of existing technologies wherever possible;

10. Believes that a standard computerized system for the carriage of dangerous goods, capable of covering all the different transport modes, should be designed, built, and brought into service;

11. Calls for telematics in public and communal transport to be promoted in such a way as to ensure that the disabled can more readily attain independent mobility or choose their own modes of transport by means of interlinked acoustic and optical systems combined with improvements to infrastructure;

12. Calls for telematics advances to be taken into consideration in decisions on trans-European networks so that existing transport infrastructure can be utilized more efficiently;

13. Stresses the need in the air transport field for the Commission to consider the following specific measures alongside the development aspects set out above:

- the standardization of European ATC/ATM systems;

- the certification of innovative systems developed under research projects;

- the differentiation and combination of the technological resources and operating procedures used in each airspace zone;

14. Calls on the Commission to compile a list of conditions to be satisfied by services before they are introduced; believes that the list should include rules on competition, data protection, and liability, and cost-benefit criteria;

15. Calls on the Commission to draw up proposals on the legal framework to be applied to the above-mentioned areas; considers that, for example, there must be no possibility that personal data or movement patterns might be recorded outside users' control in a form that could be stored;

16. Calls on the Commission to explore the possibilities for bringing about a shift in traffic by means of telematics; believes that the activities to be pursued could include optimization of public transport, car-pooling and car- sharing management and reservation, speeding up and optimizing cycle and pedestrian traffic;

17. Calls on the Commission to carry out cost-benefit analyses of all research projects underway, giving particular attention to those with far-reaching implications, i.e. in areas such as road pricing;

18. Calls on the Commission to encourage cross-border cooperation in the use of telematics and to prevent national frontiers from thwarting market entry and competition;

19. Calls on the Commission to lay down a legal framework for cooperation among the different tiers of government (local authorities, regions, national governments, and the EU) in the area of telematics applications in the transport sector;

20. Proposes that encouragement be given to pilot applications whereby private services may be permitted to operate on a Europe-wide basis under model contracts, thus enabling the development of telecommunications services to go hand in hand with the development of transport telematics infrastructure;

21. Considers it essential that the Commission should also consider ways of avoiding traffic by means of telematics;

22. Calls for the field trials already completed and those still in progress to be subjected to comparative analysis covering and assessing both the technical aspects and the benefits of the services concerned and for the findings to be discussed publicly in appropriate forums;

23. Calls on the Commission to furnish Parliament with a concise list of all the transport telematics projects undertaken or supported by the Commission, together with an assessment of the costs and the current situation as regards potential applications of the projects;

24. Calls on the Commission to ensure that when invitations to tender are issued in respect of future field trials, preference is given to cross-border projects which refer to the European location in which they are being carried out;

25. Proposes that permanent European test routes for field trials be provided in all parts of Europe in order that more meaningful comparison may be undertaken;

26. Calls on the Commission to expedite the introduction of a standard operation control system (ETCS) for railways;

27. Proposes that the possibility of expanding the combined transport action programme (PACT) be considered;

28. Requests the Commission and Council to consider whether the tax disc system currently used for the carriage of goods by road could and should be replaced by telematics services such as truck pricing;

29. Proposes that consideration be given to ways of using telematics to optimize the control of police, fire brigade, and rescue service operations vehicles and the management of refuse collection vehicles ;

30. Hopes that moves to employ existing technical means of improving transport safety will be stepped up, possible fields of application being, for example, driver aids and roadside vehicle safety checks (in particular for lorries);

31. Calls for studies in order to determine how the on-line vehicle emission measuring devices developed in the US might be brought into use;

32. Proposes that consumers should be given a free choice in the use of telematics across European frontiers;

33. Requests the Commission to submit to Parliament and the Council, in line with the communication, a specific proposal on telematics applications in transport;

34. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the European Conference of Ministers of Transport and to ERTICO (European Road Transport Telematics Implementation Coordination Organization), VERTIS (Vehicle, Road and Traffic Intelligence Society) and ITS America (Intelligence Transportation Society of America).