The Irish Presidency presented their priorities for the transport agenda, to promote a safer, more efficient and sustainable transport network for Europe. The Presidency will act as a facilitator to achieve agreement on some key dossiers in the transport sector, including:• The Connecting Europe Facility, to determine targeted investment addressing bottlenecks and missing links in transport infrastructures.• The Trans-European Networks – Transport (TEN-T), to finalise the set of guidelines and requirements for the development of the European Transport network over the next four decades to 2050.• The Fourth Rail Package, to promote a more competitive and modern public transport infrastructure across the EU, offering consumers and business greater choice and more cost-effective options.• The Airports Package, to address issues of efficiency, quality and capacity across European airports.The Presidency also aims at securing agreement on proposals to enforce the Maritime Labour Convention and a new Tachograph Regulation (a device used to record hauliers’ driving hours), and to make good progress on other important dossiers impacting on the transport sector. These include proposed new legislation under the Clean Power for Transport initiative and a number of safety related proposals in the Road Worthiness Package and the Passenger Ship Safety programme. Two other transport-related dossiers are expected to be published and presented during Ireland ’s Presidency: the next phase of the Single European Sky initiative and a Blue Belt Initiative aimed at reducing administrative burdens for short sea shipping within the EU.
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