On 26 February 2021, the European Commission published its Staff Working Document on the Evaluation of the 2013 Urban Mobility Package (SWD/2021/0047 final). The Commission launched the evaluation of the package in 2018 in order to analyse the performance of the package with respect to its:

  • Relevance;
  • Effectiveness;
  • Coherence;
  • Efficiency;
  • EU added value.

The evaluation was supported by an external study and a broad range of consultation activities including engagement with national, regional and local authorities, and stakeholders from civil society and private sector actors. A number of conclusions can be drawn from both the qualitative and quantitative evaluation. As such, the findings will provide a useful basis for shaping future policy decision in the field of urban mobility.

The evaluation found that the Urban Mobility Package’s (UMP) objectives were appropriate for meeting the identified needs, but the analysis highlighted that numerous technological, social, political, environmental and health-related developments have affected urban mobility, in some cases to a considerable extent since 2013 (e.g. digitalisation).

The overarching conclusion of the evaluation was that EU action on urban mobility is still required, and is even more crucial now than in 2013 when the Urban Mobility Package was introduced. This is because many of consequences of the problems in urban mobility are of rising severity and gravity for society, the economy and the environment. As well as challenges with regard to the resilience of urban transport networks (which has been severely tested during the COVID pandemic) and the persisting challenges linked to tackling congestion and road casualties, this particularly concerns the accelerating tempo of climate change.

With the increasingly ambitious objectives of the European Green Deal, the Climate Target Plan 2030 and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the need to decarbonise transport whilst ensuring important societal goals of affordability, accessibility, availability and inclusiveness is now a major EU priority. The consulted stakeholders identified that these areas, as well as a greater consideration for the needs of different societal groups and more focus on public transport and active mobility, should have a greater prominence in the Package.

The Evaluation Report can be accessed here and the Executive Summary here.

Further information on the evaluation can be found here.

Source: Eltis