UKTiE

Mark’s EU Week for Transport  As Parliament prepares to be prorogued in the UK tonight, Brussels prepares for European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen to announce her European Commission team. Following this, hearings will be set for these nominees in the European Parliament. These hearings will further allow us to glean new insights into the direction of EU policymaking for the years ahead. As previously stated here in previous editions, the climate change debate will be firmly at transport’s doorstep…

Mark’s EU Week for Transport  Business resumes this week in Brussels with the European Commission, European Parliament and Council all back with meetings. Political headlines churned throughout the summer, with the main stories revolving around the trials and tribulations facing von der Leyen as she creates her new European Commission. We do not yet know what this new Commission will look like nor who will have the Transport portfolio. What we do know for certain, is that while the European Commission…

Mark’s EU Week for Transport  With all signs pointing towards a No Deal Brexit being the most likely outcome, we have decided to dedicate this update towards exploring what a No Deal Brexit would mean for the UK transport sector. We will focus primarily on what the EU has done to prepare for a No Deal Brexit as an indication to the level of access and connectivity that UK transport will have to the continent after October 31st. If you haven’t already…

Mark’s EU Week for Transport  With our new Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the helm, we have seen a clear intent to ramp up the messaging and the preparations around a No Deal Brexit. The UK Government has clearly shifted to a more proactive preparatory stance towards No Deal with the Government going as far as streamlining the Whitehall process to ensure adequate preparedness for October 31st. While it is hard to distinguish bluster from fact, it does appear that the…

Mark’s EU Week for Transport  Last week was the EU Sustainable Energy Week, which UKTiE attended in order to gain further insight into the forthcoming EU climate agenda. The conclusion was that, while the current policy negotiations can appear quite vague, specificity will come and will come quickly once the new European Parliament begins in the first week of July. We are hearing measures ranging from cutting emissions in shipping, to creating a level playing field by increasing aviation taxation, to…

Mark’s EU Week for Transport  Whilst the focus of the past week has been on who will get which top EU job, behind the scenes the European Parliament and the European Council have both been stealing a march on the European Commission by seeking to agree strategic priorities for the next five year EU mandate. Whilst constitutionally the European Commission has the sole power of initiative, this time round the other two EU institutions want to shape their agenda. And given the…

Mark’s EU Week for Transport  Now that the dust has begun to settle on the EU elections, the European Parliament groups are already setting policy priorities for the upcoming mandate. In that vain, in the update below we have laid out some of the manifesto promises that were made by the European groups in the election. The overarching caveat of the manifesto analysis is that we do not yet know which group will get which EU top job, with the Presidents…