Editorial
Dear members,
After the adoption of the White Paper on the European Transport policy at the beginning of the year, which puts a strong emphasis on the challenge of stimulating and deploying innovation in transport, the European Commission is now actively preparing several initiatives which will shape the future of its innovation policy.
The Common Strategic Framework for EU research and innovation, which will follow the FP7 after 2013 will be adopted by the Commission on the 30th of November 2011. It will afterwards be discussed, amended and adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. Following an initial communication on this topic, the EC has ended a first period of consultation which it follows with direct consultation of key stakeholders. In this framework, Polis has been invited to a stakeholder consultation meeting during this month of June. This is a recognition of the role of our network on innovation.
In parallel, the EC continues its work in preparing the Strategic Transport Technology Plan which is expected to be released in October 2011 and which will also be important in shaping future EU activities on transport and innovation. Polis has submitted a detailed and comprehensive contribution to the EC on this matter some weeks ago.
Finally, the Smartcities initiative is also progressively taking shape at the European level. After having answered the public consultation, Polis has been invited to provide a contribution during the conference on the launch of this initiative by the European Commission on the 21st of June in Brussels, providing us the opportunity to explain the role of transport and mobility in the smart city of tomorrow in Europe.
These initiatives are absorbing an important amount of ressources from our members, which we actively consult, and the secretariat, but are also unique opportunities to participate to the design of the future European policies on transport and innovation. Your contribution and inputs on these topics are very important to help us define our contribution to the EC and secure further support for your local ambitions at the European level for the years to come.
We will, no doubt, have the opportunity to address these issues during several of our upcoming meeting, in particular during our Annual Conference on the 29th and 30th of November and during the meeting with vice-president Kallas for politicians representing our members next 28th of June in Brussels.
Yours sincerely,
Sylvain Haon
|
