Motorists should pay for pollution they cause, Kinnock says

MOTORISTS should have to pay the real cost of the congestion and environmental damage they cause in Europe's cities and towns, according to the EU Transport Commissioner, Mr Neil Kinnock.

Speaking to journalists in Dublin yesterday, he also said that air fares in Europe were still too high, that measures were being taken to improve safety standards on passenger ferries and fishing vessels and the presidency would have a "very full agenda" on the transport front.

Mr Kinnock expressed enthusiastic support for the proposed EU-funded £220 million light rail system in Dublin, because it was "an intelligent way of improving public transport to attract people out of their cars voluntarily".

But there was also a need to devise "push" policies which would penalise motorists for causing congestion, by pricing their use of road space.

"You will get what you pay for and you will pay for what you get", he declared. However, this was a matter for member-states to legislate.

Although he supported further road-building, to enable some areas to function economically, Mr Kinnock stressed that the emphasis of EU transport policies was shifting towards public transport. Thus, the trans-European network strategy had a "huge bias" in favour of railways and combined transport.

This was happening "not because of a sudden greening, but, simply because we cannot go on as we are", he said.

"By the year 2005, things will be even worse. Congestion, already phenomenal, will be higher; more people will be killed, more gassed by fumes, more of the environment destroyed".

Mr Kinnock said it was possible that negotiations with Switzerland on the contentious issue of transit routes through the Alps for EU goods traffic would be concluded during the Irish presidency, which he expected to be conducted with the "enormous proficiency" the EU had come to expect from Ireland.

He was confident that "substantial progress" would be made in civil aviation negotiations between the EU and the US, but said that Germany would face EU sanction for its unilateral action in concluding a draft "open-skies" agreement with the US to protect its main carrier, Lufthansa.

"Either we have a European mandate, or we'll see a series of similar deals," the commissioner said, adding that this was also in the interest of Aer Lingus and the Government.

However, he said it would take "a few years" for fares in Europe to be reduced by greater competition between the airlines.

Developing independent, non-subsidised airlines could not be done by deregulating the industry overnight, as the US had done, because of the social obligations accepted in Europe. "We're not going to say that if you live above the Arctic Circle or in the West of Ireland, tough luck, forget about travelling by air."

Also high on the agenda were discussions about air traffic control and slot allocations at airports; improvements in road safety, including harmonisation of blood alcohol levels, and the introduction of a mandatory requirement on ferry companies to maintain passenger lists, unlike in recent disasters.

In relation to limiting the number of EU commissioners, Mr Kinnock said he had spoken out strongly against the idea. It was "essential to guarantee that all countries, whatever their size, have their own commissioner", if necessary by cutting back on the representation of larger member-states.