Round-table and debate in Brussels, Wednesday the 14th of April 2010, co-organised by Ile-de-France Europe and Euro Carex, with the participation of Gilles Savary, former Vice President of the Commission on Transport of the European Parliament, Vice-president of the Gironde County council (France),  Mathieu Grosch and Said El Khadraoui, members of the European Parliament - TRAN Commission (Transport), Sandro Santamato, head of unit, DG Move A3, European Commission, Yanick Paternotte, President of the EURO CAREX association, and member of the French Parliament.

At a time when the European Parliament is debating over its future contribution on transport policy, the European Commission is preparing a communication, due in autumn 2010, on the future scenarios that will determine the future of transport for the coming 20 to 40 years, as well as a proposition to revise the guidelines of the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T).

The future White Paper of the Commission should make suggestions as to new policy orientations, aiming at rebalancing different modes of transport by revitalizing rail, promoting maritime and fluvial transport, and monitoring the growth in air transport. And all this with a sustainable perspective, by addressing the ever growing problems of energy costs, CO2 gas emissions, goods transport safety and congestion of major road axis.

These concerns are tackled by EURO CAREX, a project that aims to develop a European freight service on the existing high speed rail network. It will thereby allow the modal report of air freight, currently transported by trucks or short and medium distance flights, towards high speed trains. During a first phase that runs until 2015, the EURO CAREX service will link the airports of Amsterdam-Schiphol, Liège, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, Roissy-CDG, the London area and Germany (Cologne or Frankfurt). In the future, the network will extend as far as Italy and Spain.