§ Lord Harrisonasked Her Majesty's Government:
How successful the blending of environmental policy with European Union transport policy, as heralded by Her Majesty's Government at the 1998 Cardiff Council, has been; and what European Union environmental targets in the transport sector have subsequently been set and implemented. [HL112]
§ Lord WhittyThe Government continue to support strongly the integration of environmental and sustainable development considerations into European Union transport policy. The European Union Transport Council has adopted one of the furthest reaching of the integration strategies developed since the 1998 Cardiff European Council. This was recognised by a report for DETR in 2001 by the Institute for European Environmental Policy. Ensuring sustainable transport also featured as one of the four priority areas in the sustainable development strategy adopted by the European Council at GÕteborg in June 2001.
Since the Cardiff Council a range of European Union targets affecting the transport sector have been agreed. These include air quality standards set under the Air Quality Framework Directive; vehicle emission standards; fuel quality standards; and the voluntary agreement on reducing CO2 emissions from passenger vehicles. Additionally, the Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM)—an annual indicator-based report—has been established by the European Union to enable policy-makers to gauge the progress of their integration policies.