Within the EU28, Romania appears to have achieved the best balance between the various modes of transport, with roads, rail and inland waterways each representing about one third of all freight carried.
The data from a report published in October suggests that longstanding EU efforts to improve intermodality, or the use of “at least two different transport modes in an integrated manner”, have yielded little results.
In 2001 and 2011, the Commission had issued white papers aimed at cutting emissions from transport, thanks, in part, to a shift away from road to rail and inland waterways. Over the years, the EU sent mixed signals about its determination to support greener modes of transport.
In 2011, transport ministers renounced ambitions to cut transport emissions by 60% by 2050, an objective that had been set by the European Commission.
At the same time, the EU has launched a variety of funding programmes such as Marco Polo, and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), in order to facilitate the deployment of cleaner transport.