New faces, old challenges

New faces at the Palais Berlaymont, headquarters of the European Commission, while the team of José Manuel Barroso remains committed on various fronts (economy, environment, health, consumer protection, transport). The most urgent task is that of aid to the regions recently struck by natural disasters: after the typhoons in the Philippines and Vietnam and the tsunami in Samoa, 3 million euros have now been allocated to the relief of the populations struck by the earthquake in Sumatra.Figel leaves the Executive; Sefcovic takes his place. The last change of the guard at the Commission regards the Slovak Jan Figel, who held the portfolio of culture, education and youth and who resigned on 1st October to make way for his compatriot Maros Sefcovic, a veteran diplomat, former Slovak ambassador to the EU. Figel, appreciated for his work in Brussels, resigned his post to assume that of President of the Slovak Christian Democrat party. Sefcovic will now have to obtain the ratification of the European Parliament and will remain in office, like his fellow-Commissioners, until 31 October, when the five-year mandate of the Executive expires; it will then have to be completely renewed. The transfer of the culture and youth portfolio follows several other changes of Commissioners in recent months. During its last plenary session in September, in fact, the EP had approved three new Commissioners: Algirdas Semeta as Commissioner for financial and budgetary planning, Karel De Gucht for development and humanitarian aid, and Pawel Samecki for regional policy. A plan to improve urban mobility. The decisions taken this week by the Barroso team include the “Action Plan for Urban Mobility”, which proposes twenty measures “aimed at helping local, regional and national administrations to achieve their respective objectives for sustainable urban mobility”. The Executive has pledged, for example, to support such research projects as those on low carbon-emission or zero emission vehicles; “specific links will be established between urban mobility and already existing EU policies in the fields of health, cohesion and disability”. “The other actions planned include an initiative aimed at improving information on traffic”. Awareness-raising campaigns, such as European Mobility Week, will also be supported. The measures in question mainly consist of activities of support and awareness-raising. Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani comments: “Never before had the Commission proposed actions to make urban mobility more simple and ecological”. Congested cities, too many accidents. These measures, according to the Commissioner for Transport, “will encourage cities to tackle the problems they face and place at their disposal better information and tools”. The Commission points out that 70% of the EU population live in urban areas and “9 citizens out of 10 ask for a better management of traffic”. “Congestion and accidents are visible signs of a poor management of mobility, with the result that “one fatal road accident out of three takes place in an urban context”. This situation “generates other problems: urban transport produces roughly 40% of carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of other emissions due to road traffic”. An action plan to identify measures to make transport in our cities “more efficient and sustainable within the next four years” is thus essential. Initiative in the field of external relations. In a quite different field, that of external relations, the Commission presented in recent days a report with the title “EU-Latin America, global players in partnership”, drawn up in preparation for the next summit due to be held in Spain in the spring of 2010. Many shared commitments are underlined in the report: supporting the development of Latin, Central and Caribbean America, reinforcing trade with Europe, acting together in the field of global challenges such as environmental protection and climate change, collaborating in the sector of migration and curbing the international diffusion and trafficking of drugs. Benita Ferrero Waldner, Commissioner for External Relations, explained: “More fruitful collaboration will permit us to contribute directly to peace and stability in the region and to its further development by increasing social cohesion, improving democratic governance and fostering regional integration”. To this end the Executive proposes to create an Investment Fund for Latin America, “whose leverage effect would mobilize the resources of the financial institutions to support projects relating to energy infrastructures, transport, environment and social cohesion”.