newsletterOctober 2015

BENELUX: TEST LABORATORY FOR THE EUROPEAN MOBILITY MARKET

ON THE WAY TO SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT

Responsible publisherDr J.P.R.M. van LaarhovenBenelux General SecretariatRue de la Régence 391000 Brusselsinfo@benelux.intwww.benelux.int

“In recent years, the mobility agenda of the Benelux has been heavily concentrated on road traffic – and understandably so, since that is where the greatest pressure points are situated. In the future, however, we also wish to focus on multimodality and free flows. A single country on its own cannot deal with these challenges. We have to address this together with our neighbours.”

Jacqueline Galant, Belgian Minister of Mobility, Chairwoman of the Benelux Committee of Ministers for Mobility

The creation of a single space for mobility and transport within the European Union remains a major ambition. The economic context, customs, regulations, population density and morphology still differ significantly from one Member State to another. So the road to a unified internal transport and mobility market is still a fairly long one...

In the area of mobility, the Benelux countries are confronted with common and rather im-portant challenges. These can be approached nationally, but also within the Benelux con-text. Citizens and enterprises in the relatively small Benelux countries naturally run up against national borders more quickly than is the case in the larger neighbouring European countries. Cooperation is therefore crucial for eliminating these extra barriers. On the one hand, the Benelux countries - with their seaports, inland ports and airports - are the gateway to Europe. On the other, the Ben-elux is the most densely populated region of Europe. This compels the governments and transporters to be innovative and creative so as to make mobility sustainable and not unnecessarily burden the environment.

By taking up these challenges on a day-to-day basis, the Benelux countries are becom-ing de facto leaders in innovative solutions. Best practices can serve as models for further European integration of the transport and mobility markets. In the transport sector there is the free cabotage, the higher tonnage and the free movement of sea containers. Also being studied is how binding agreements can be concluded in order to jointly recognise electric vehicles technically and to digitise the customs formalities and consignment notes.

The field of action is steadily widening. Various initiatives to fully exploit ICT so as to make passenger transport safer and mul-timodality more efficient have been recently initiated between the governments, and you will read more about them in this newsletter.

The free movement of persons and goods within the EU is a legal concept that continues to run up against physical and legal limits. The Benelux countries have an ambitious agenda for steadily pushing back these limits through pragmatic cooperation.

GREENING OUR MOBILITY

LESS PAPER IN OUR PORTS

TRANSPORT SECTOR PARTICIPATES IN REFLECTION

The Benelux countries constitute a linchpin for logistics and transport within Europe, but in the area of cross-border passenger trans-port they are also a major link in the Europe-an traffic flows. In terms of making mobility more sustainable, for both logistics and pas-senger transport, the Benelux countries thus are striving to play a leading role.

The emphasis is being placed on supporting innovative fuels such as LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), electricity and hydrogen. It´s no accident that the Benelux countries are home base for

the European divisions of several world-class companies that focus strongly on these tech-nologies within the European market.

In the long run, of course, the network of charging and tanking possibilities within the Benelux must be made compatible so as to give these new power sources a chance. Only in this way can an electric vehicle or a gas or hydrogen-powered vehicle refuel or recharge without difficulty in a different Benelux coun-try. The Benelux is a European leader in this harmonisation of future infrastructure.

On the basis of the new EU Customs Code, which enters into force as of 1 May 2016, a paper document no longer has to accom-pany the goods in the community customs transit. The Benelux wants to take the lead in its three countries by improving cross- border transport and simplifying administra-tive procedures.

For example, the customs administra-tions from the Benelux Union wish to work together and field-test the added value of low-paper customs transit via the simplified procedure and agreed locations of shipments by road, rail and inland waterways.

On 3 March 2015, a first pilot for low- paper customs transit was therefore initiated between the port of Antwerp and the port of Rotterdam. The initiative is firmly oriented towards promoting paperless procedures so as to save time and money for companies. Over the short and long terms the private sector can achieve significant benefits: less paper, time gained, greater efficiency and cost savings. In brief, an important competi-tive advantage in a competitive European transport market.

While Europe has made major steps in harmonising laws and regulations, the 28-member EU occasionally nevertheless appears to be too slow in its ability to keep up with the innovations of the transport sector. The Benelux thus offers an ideal framework for trying out new transport techniques and providing a cross-border framework. If a test is successful, Europe can then share in the accumulated experience and possibly incor-porate the regulation into the EU acquis.

Regular consultation in the Benelux context between the sectoral organisations is the engine driving this cooperation.

An excellent illustration of this is the intro-duction of the cross-border road transport of 45-foot containers, the long sea contain-ers. These containers could, on the basis of national regulations, already be transported in both the Netherlands and Belgium. In the absence of a clear EU regulation, however, they still couldn´t cross the border. At the request of the sector, a Benelux regulation was drafted for this. Within a year, free movement of this type of container became possible within the Benelux.

2 • October 2015

Greening our mobility by supporting innovative fuels.

´De Mureen´ - First inland shipping vessel to sail on a low-paper basis.

“In less than a year, the Benelux made cross-border transport possible for 45-foot containers. That means fewer rules and more transport for transport contractors. With this the Benelux is showing that it’s serious in its ambition to act as a logistical test laboratory for Europe and that it can also achieve this ambition.”

Arthur van Dijk, chairman Transport en Logistiek Nederland (TLN)

BENELUX COUNTRIES CONTROL THE ROADS

Newsletter • 3

In recent years road transport in Europe, and thus also within the Benelux, has developed at a rapid pace internationally, not only in terms of volume but also with regard to the way this transport is organised.

This internationalisation has generated a certain degree of legal inequality within the sector.

Within the context of the Benelux Union, har-monisation and collaboration are a first step to improving the situation. Moreover, collab-oration and concentration of forces between the control services within the Benelux can lead to major economies of scale.

The complexity of EU regulations has led to extensive specialisation, which requires extra capacity, expertise and experience. By work-ing together within the Benelux, also in the area of education and training, the limited means can be deployed more intelligently and efficiently.

To structure this cooperation, in October 2014 a treaty was signed amongst the Ben-elux countries with which our countries wish to ensure safer roads and strive for fair com-petition within the sector.

It will be put into concrete operation on the basis of periodic action plans.

In the meantime, the countries, on the basis of the first action plan, are regularly conduct-ing joint inspections. In a first inspection in May 2015, the international bus transport to and from a number of amusement parks in the border regions was checked by the Benelux control services. In particular, one sought to verify whether the driving and rest times were being adequately respected. This resulted in the discovery of a number of violations. In a second and third inspection in June and September 2015, the focus was on the transport sector, with the following topics being checked: respect for driving and rest times, proper use of the tachograph, responsible securing of the load. Joint education and training programmes are also organised for inspectors in various areas and the possibility is being studied of creating a so-called “risk rating system”. This would entail that results - both positive and negative - of road transport inspec-tions would be automatically shared back and forth. This would make it possible to in-spect in a much more targeted and efficient manner, whereby transporters with few or no violations can be rewarded´ with fewer inspections and attention can be placed more on transporters with worse scores. This would be a win-win situation for both the government and the sector.

Joint check of international freight transport.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Smart technology and customised up-to-the-minute travel information are increasingly more important for our mobility. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) will be further developed in the coming years and offer opportunities for road users, road managers and the business community. They can be used to improve accessibility, livability and safety and upgrade the quality of services provided to travellers by means of reliable and current multimodal travel information services and a more effective and efficient public traffic management.

These technological and social developments are taking place quickly. It is expected that over a period of 15-20 years virtually the entire vehicle fleet will be continuously “connected” with other vehicles or online services. More and more cooperative services are being introduced. All of this calls for open (European) standards and more (international) collaboration between government and business community.

Objective: a smart and substantively consist-ent mix of information via smartphones, navi-gation systems and collective channels of information on, above and alongside the road.

Earlier this year, a Benelux consultation on ITS was initiated with a twofold objective: firstly, to exchange information with one an-other about national, regional and interna-tional developments and initiatives on ITS and, secondly, to explore whether there are opportunities, for example in the field of regu-lations, pilot projects or common corridors, that can be addressed in the Benelux context to facilitate the further development of ITS applications.

In addition, the Benelux is also focusing on our cities and how using ITS might improve sustainable mobility in them.

Meanwhile, within the Benelux context an inventory is being done of the locations of relevant (ITS) traffic data, of the managers thereof, as well as of the national/regional (data) provision policy. ITS can play a positive role in combating urban congestion, air pollution, noise pollution, etc. When the necessity arises, further work will be done on improving the cross-border exchange of ITS traffic information.

Benelux is one of the world leaders in the field of logistics. The position of the individual Benelux countries and of the Benelux coun-tries jointly vis-à-vis the rest of Europe as a logistical linchpin is well-known and very substantial. However, less is known about the mutual relations and goods flows.

The objective of the study is thus to plot out the interrelations between the three countries, to see what developments they have gone through and to spot trends for the

future. By mapping out this information, future policy measures will be able to be better harmonised in the broader Benelux context, which can improve the position of all Benelux countries in the European transportation system and be an important aid in organising the modal shift from road transport to water and rail.

The study is expected to be completed by the end of October.

STUDY OF INTRA-BENELUX GOODS FLOWS

HEAVY TRAFFIC ON ROADS COMPELS USE OF INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

4 • October 2015

www.benelux.int

FOR MOREINFORMATION

© ETSI 2012