For the third consecutive year, more than one hundred among delegates and stakeholders from the rail sector have come together to discuss challenges and opportunities for rail freight in Europe at the Rail Freight Day in Vienna.

The Transport and Tourism (TRAN) Committee of the European Parliament adopted yesterday, Monday 5th December 2016, the motion for a resolution ‘’Logistics in the EU and multimodal transport in the new TEN-T corridors’’ – Rapporteur MEP Mrs. Ines Ayala Sender. The report now is expected to be voted in plenary in early 2017.

Today, the General Assembly of EIM unanimously re-elected Antti Vehviläinen, Director General of the Finnish Transport Agency (FI), as EIM President for a second mandate. EIM’s General Assembly also re-elected Alain Quinet, Director-General Delegate of SNCF Réseau (FR) and Francisco Cardoso dos Reis, Senior Adviser to the Board of Directors of Infraestruturas de Portugal S.A. (PT) as Vice-Presidents.

On Tuesday 15th November 2016, EIM participated at the seminar ''Sustainable and effective logistics as a key priority for Europe'' organised in Brussels by the Gothenburg-Oslo partnership – including the Oslo Region, the City of Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland Region.

The proposal foresees an increase of 1.4 billion euro for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) budget. The transport sector warns that this cannot be considered sufficient to complete the Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T). Nonetheless, the current proposal would enhance the role of transport as an enabler of economic growth and job creation, which at moment employs 20 million people (10% of total EU employment).

Today, at the occasion of the 2016 InnoTrans Trade Fair, the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Railways and the representatives of the European Railway sector signed the fourth Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the cooperation for the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).

Jernbaneverket, ProRail and EIM welcome the endorsement by the Ministries of the ‘’Declaration of Rail Freight Corridors’’ at the TEN-T Days 2016, and express their support for the sector’s statement therein attached.

Today the rail sector and its customers, represented by CER, CLECAT, EIM, ERFA, ERTMS Users Group, ESC, UIP, UIRR, and UNIFE, and supported by the Rail Freight Corridors, presented a declaration at the TEN-T Days in Rotterdam, committing themselves to the aim of enhancing the competitiveness of the Rail Freight Corridors for the benefit of all customers, and to improving the quality, reliability and efficiency of transporting goods by rail across Europe.

On Wednesday 20th July 2016, the European Commission published its Communication ‘’A European strategy for low-emission mobility’’, outlining its future masterplan on the decarbonisation of transport.