Brussels, 9 December 2022
On the 9th of December, FEPORT attended ALICE’s General Assembly Meeting which was held online. Aside from an introduction of ALICE’s new Secretariat team members and a discussion on ALICE’s work plan and activities for 2023, also various presentations by ALICE Thematic Groups were given during the meeting.
Salvador Furió (Fundación Valenciaport) gave an overview of the work of the thematic group Corridors, Hubs and Synchromodality. This thematic group among others focusses on further defining the physical internet concept, and has intensified its collaboration with TIC 4.0 and the Waterborne TP. Moreover, in March 2023, a webinar is planned that should look into the operational and legal aspects regarding the upcoming Combined Transport Directive revision proposal.
ALICE’s General Assembly meeting also provided room for presentations by the European Commission, such as by Torsten Klinke (DG MOVE) who detailed the upcoming Green Freight Package, a legislative package which aims at improving the environmental performance of freight transport by increasing its operational efficiency. By doing so, the package will be complementary to other pieces of EU legislation that aim at reducing the transport sector’s fossil fuel dependency such as the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR).
One of the initiatives of the Green Freight Package he outlined included CountEmissionsEU, which Mr Klinke described as an enabling tool which should not lead to additional reporting requirements. The CountEmission EU proposal should follow a well-to-wheel approach and will have an intra-EU focus, although with a global dimension.
Mr Klinke also briefly touched upon TEN-T, specifying that the aim of the Commission proposal is to better multimodal passenger and freight terminals to urban nodes. Also in the new urban mobility framework, more attention is paid to last mile connections and freight aspects of urban mobility.
Source: ALICE