Following the CoR Forum on the EU Urban Agenda, the CoR's Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy (COTER) held last week in Amsterdam its first discussion on the opinion 'An EU Roadmap for Cycling', drafted by PES member Kevin Peel, member of Manchester City Council (UK).
The own-initiative opinion follows calls by Members of the European Parliament, non-governmental organisations, and the Luxembourg Declaration of EU Transport Ministers in autumn 2015, which called on the European Commission to take steps to produce an EU-wide Roadmap for Cycling.
"The demand for co-ordinated action at EU level for an EU Roadmap for Cycling has been growing in recent years. My draft opinion will make clear the position of local and regional authorities, who are after all the principal players in shaping urban and regional transport systems on this important issue", underlined Peel.
Policy recommendations aimed at in the future draft opinion include a target to double cycling across the EU over the next 10 years, to ring fence 10% of EU transport funding for cycling investment, a call for Eurostat to develop a common data collection methodology and harmonised definitions for national data on cycle use and the creation of a cycling focal point at the European Commission.
"The economic, health and environmental benefits of cycling are well evidenced", argued Peel, "Doubling cycling across the EU could create an additional 400,000 jobs in the cycling industry and through tourism and add over 200 billion euros in economic benefit across the EU through improved public health, less congestion, fuel savings, reduced CO2 emissions and reduced noise and air pollution."
The draft opinion will be voted on at the next COTER commission meeting in Brussels on 4th July. It is then scheduled to be adopted at the October CoR plenary session.
