THE ROLE OF ROAD FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN EU STRATEGIC PRIORITIES: CHALLENGES FOR UKRAINE

Abstract

Priorities for a competitive and efficient EU transport system have been declared in the third White Paper published in 2011. The strategic priorities of European transport policy are integrated to other EU development priorities, including the European Green Deal, Territorial Agenda 2030. In December 2020 The European Commission presented “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – putting European transport on track for the future”. This document has outlined the European transport system’s path towards achieving objectives of a sustainable, smart and resilient mobility. The priorities of the European transport system focus on environmental issues, sustainability, development of high-speed railways, expansion of rail freight and passenger transport markets, development of multimodal transportation, technologies for a further electrification and automation in transport, digitalization, deployment of innovations. Road freight transport accounted for more than two thirds of freight traffic in 2019. For the EU member states bordered to Ukraine (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania), the share of road freight transport has been growing since 2011. These countries are mostly involved in the international road freight transportation. The average distance for which goods were carried by international road freight transport in EU was 581 km in 2018. For Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania the average distance varied from 603 to 786 km. The countries that have joined the EU since 2004 accounted for 80 % of all cross-trade in the EU, which emphasized on the relative competitiveness of hauliers from these countries. Transport companies from Poland are the most active in freight transport between EU countries, in particular in cabotage. In 2020, the European Parliament adopted the Mobility Package I. However, some Members of EU countries, including Poland and Romania claimed against some statements of the Package, including the driver returns home and rules on cabotage operation.