The Policy Advisory Committee and DG MOVE reaffirm their mutual support
Image from farbecho eventvideographie und medienproduktion by Daniel Dudek
This autumn, the CIVITAS Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) met with the European Commission, with a focus on the Commission's Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, and on their New Urban Mobility Initiative, which is set to be presented at the end of 2021.
This third official meeting of the PAC took place on 20 October, alongside the CIVITAS Forum 2021, in Aachen (Germany) in a hybrid format. In total, nine PAC members attended the meeting (seven on-site and two online), as well as Frauke Burgdorff, Councillor for Urban Development, Construction and Mobility at the CIVITAS Forum host city of Aachen, Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director General at DG MOVE,and Torsten Klimke, Head of Unit at DG MOVE.
During the meeting, the representatives from DG MOVE presented the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, which will soon open a call for expressions of interest for cities ready to commit to becoming climate neutral by 2030. The discussion also considered the Commission's new Urban Mobility Initiative, which will propose measures to encourage EU countries to develop urban transport systems that are safe, accessible, inclusive, affordable, smart, resilient and emission-free. This new Urban Mobility Initiative will be presented later this year, following a consultation process that took place earlier in the year.
These presentations were followed by an open discussion between the PAC members and the DG MOVE representatives, in which the PAC reiterated their support in implementing these EU strategies.
This PAC meeting was also an opportunity to provide an update on the work of the CIVITAS Policy Support Group, and to begin the process of updating the first PAC statement on Mobility as a Service (MaaS). This culminated in a discussion and agreement on the next steps for each of the PAC members
The PAC members will meet again at the beginning of 2022. At that point, they will have already prepared a consolidated PAC Statement on MaaS to discuss, alongside discussions on new challenges and topics to tackle.
Author: Ana Aleixo
