The Committee
on Transport and Tourism adopted the report drawn up by Ulrich STOCKMANN
(PES, DE), amending, under the first reading of codecision procedure, the
proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
amending Regulation (EC) No 1692/2006 establishing the second ‘Marco Polo’
programme for the granting of Community financial assistance to improve the
environmental performance of the freight transport system (‘Marco Polo II’).
The main
amendments are as follows:
Online
helpdesk: submissions shall contain all the
information necessary to enable the Commission to make its selection. If
required, the Commission shall provide assistance to applicants to facilitate
their application process, for instance by way of an online helpdesk.
Marco Polo
III: the Commission shall present a Communication
(rather than an evaluation report) on the results achieved by the Marco Polo
Programme for the period 2003-2010. It shall do so before drawing up a
proposal for a third Marco Polo Programme and shall take account of the
Communication’s findings when drawing up the proposal (rather than by 30 June
2011 as the Commission had proposed.)
Communication: the Communication should deal with the following:
- the impact
of Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1692/2006 establishing the
second “Marco Polo” programme for the granting of Community financial
assistance to improve the environmental performance of the freight
transport system (“Marco Polo II”);
- the
experience of the Executive Agency for Competition and Innovation with
programme management;
- the need to
differentiate between transport modes in the conditions for funding, on
the basis of safety, environmental performance and energy efficiency;
- the
effectiveness of Traffic Avoidance Actions;
- the need to
set up demand-driven assistance at the application stage, taking into
account the needs of small and micro transport companies;
- the
recognition of economic recession as an exceptional reason for extending
the duration of projects;
- product-specific
lowering of eligibility thresholds;
- the
possibility of indicating the targets for minimum funding thresholds for
proposed projects in terms of energy efficiency and environmental
benefits in addition to tonne-kilometres shifted;
- the
appropriateness of including the transport unit in the definition of the
term “freight”;
- the
availability of complete yearly overviews of projects which have been
co-financed;
- the
possibility of ensuring consistency between the Marco Polo Programme,
the Logistics Action Plan and the TEN-T programme by taking the
appropriate measures in order to coordinate the allocation of community
funds, in particular for Motorways of the Sea;
- the
possibility of making costs incurred in a third country eligible if
promoted by undertakings from a Member State;
- the need to
take into account the specific characteristics of the inland waterway
sector and its small- and medium sized enterprises, for example by way
of a dedicated programme for the inland waterway sector;
- the
possibility of extending the programme to the neighbouring countries;
- the
possibility of further adapting the programme to the insular and
archipelagic Member States.
Eligible
costs: the eligible costs related to ancillary
infrastructure shall not be higher than 20% (rather than 10%) of the total
eligible costs for the project.
Contract
value threshold: value thresholds for motorways
of the sea and modal shift are amended.