A new EU cycling declaration will recognise the centrality of cycling to the European Unions green goals and, what’s more, could be central to helping Europe wean itself off Russian sourced goods. So accepted Commission Executive Vice President and EU Green deal chief Frans Timmermans as he declared that “A green Europe will be a cycling Europe”.
While promoting EU action, TImmermans also reiterated the vital importance of “bottom up” initiatives, promising ongoing support for regional and urban cycling initiatives across Europe. Active transport will play a key role in reaching the goal of 100 climate neutral EU cities by 2030.
The remarks came during festivities before the Tour de France’s Grand Depart, which this year took place in Copenhagen.
A unified EU cycling policy that gives cycling parity with other modes of transport and other industrial sectors has long been the stated goal of key European organisations including Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) and the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF). It is believed that such a policy could generate more coherent policy creation and foster consistency across the EU member states. It could lead to billions of euros of additional investment in cycling.
Sports Marketing Surveys, like CIE and ECF, welcomed the announcement.
“We must support more and new measures to grow cycling in Europe,” Executive Vice-President Timmermans urged. To that end, he announced that the EU Commission and EU Parliament will cooperate on the creation of an EU Cycling Declaration which is expected to bring all relevant policies together in one place. He added that “everything should, where possible have a cycling dimension”, referring to EU environment, industrial and mobility policies.
The ECF and CIE welcomed the Commission’s recognition of their strong case for more cycling as essential to achieving the EU’s bold climate, economic, industrial and social policy objectives, and more recently as a way to accelerate progress on the RePower EU plan to save energy and reduce dependency on Russian imports.
As Timmermans put it, “It cannot be done without cycling.”
Speaking at the same event, MEP Karima Delli, Chair of the EU Parliament committee on transport and tourism indicated that a cycling declaration will be fast-tracked. “Good news, things are about to change, we need a tremendous increase in cycling infrastructure to decarbonize the transport sector.”
Kevin Mayne, CIE CEO said: “This is an important milestone for us – we have called for the recognition of cycling as an industry of strategic importance in the EU since the day we were founded. We are extremely satisfied with the positive recognition given by EVP Timmermans in his speech. We are committed to delivering thousands of high quality green jobs in Europe and we look forward to working with the Commission to place our industrial strategy into the EU Cycling Declaration.”
Sports Marketing Surveys is a founder member of Cycling Industries Europe and contributor to its Expert Group on market Impact and Intelligence. Cycling Industries Europe is the voice of cycling business, actively promoting the sector in Europe and worldwide. Its ambition is to reach out beyond the traditional definition of the cycling industry and align all business and commercial actors in a common mission to change the way people move.
Website: https://cyclingindustries.com
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