Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF), Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and Animals International (AI) have witnessed how an old, former cargo ship with nearly 8,000 animals on board needed to be replaced while at sea. Inadequate European legislation and its poor implementation regularly lead to prolonged suffering of animals exported outside the EU. On February 23rd,…
Transport
Belgian Air Travel Starts to Pick Up Again
This last February, Brussels Airport welcomed around 825,000 passengers, up by 400% compared to February 2021, but still down by 50% compared to the same period before the crisis (February 2019). A better month than January (-52%), despite being shorter by 3 days. In terms of freight, the volumes transported increased by 13% compared with February…
European Mobility Week
The nominees for the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards, Award for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP Award) and the EU Urban Road Safety Award have been announced. All awards are presented in recognition of remarkable activities conducted in 2021. The two EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards showcase smaller and larger municipalities that successfully promoted sustainable urban mobility during the week of…
European Railway Awards
The 2022 European Railway Award’s Rail Champion prize was presented today to Manfred Weber, Chairman of the European Parliament’s EPP Group, for his legislative support of rail travel among youth. Additionally, Bane NOR’s ERTMS programme was recognised as this year’s Rail Trailblazer project for revolutionising the Norwegian rail network and providing a vision for digital railways in a Single European Rail…
Welfare of Animals in Transit
The European Parliament has endorsed the outcome of eighteen months of work by the committee of inquiry on the protection of animals during transport (ANIT). In particular, the plenary in Strasbourg has voted a full set of recommendations to the Council and the Commission following the investigation of alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application…
Teenage pilot Zara Rutherford smashes solo round-world records
Zara Rutherford, 19, landed back home today at Kortrijk-Wevelgem in Belgium to complete her round-the-world challenge. She is the youngest woman to fly solo around the world following a five-month challenge. She arrived two months later than planned as a result of adverse weather. During the trip she spent a month stuck in Nome, Alaska,…
Call for Higher Standards for Animal Transport
MEPs will this week vote on the recommendations of the Special Inquiry Committee for Animal Transport (ANIT), which was launched on the initiative of the Greens/EFA group. The recommendations will be the basis for the Commission’s new legislation on transporting animals in the EU, with proposals expected by 2023. The Greens/EFA group say they have…
Call for EU Road Collision Investigation Authority
The European Transport Safety Council is repeating its call for the setting up of an EU road collision investigation authority to conduct forensic analysis of crashes involving automated vehicles on EU roads. The call follows the announcement last week by Mercedes-Benz of the German launch of ‘Drive Pilot’, a system that allows for hands-off automated driving…
Transport Infrastructure in Europe
In recent years, EU auditors have repeatedly highlighted various weaknesses affecting the delivery of large transport projects in the EU. How does the EU’s performance compare, however, to other countries in the world, such as Australia, Canada and the US? To answer this question, the European Court of Auditors has carried out a review comparing…
European Year Dedicated to Rail
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held an event promoting the European year dedicated to rail and explaining its potential to become a fully sustainable and competitive transport option, thereby helping to achieve the Green Deal targets. Rail can make a huge contribution to sustainable and smart mobility but a lot still needs to be…