Strong Support for Shift2Rail voiced by the Commission, diverse stakeholders at Shift2Rail Stakeholder meeting

Brussels. On 12 September, the European Commission held a public stakeholders hearing on Shift2Rail that brought together more than 100 participants.

This public hearing, chaired by Mr. Jean-Eric Paquet, Director of the European Mobility Network of DG Move, was the occasion for Shift2Rail promoters to show their strong mobilisation (with no less than 37 signatory industrial companies, operators, infrastructure managers, and research organisations represented) and deliver their key messages on the future programme to the European Commission. Many Shift2Rail signatories took the floor to advocate for the formation of a Joint Undertaking with “Named Beneficiaries”, as well as urging the Commission to set an ambitious budget for the initiative within Horizon2020 and submit its legislative proposal to the Council and the European Parliament before the end of December.

The European Commission expressed its satisfaction regarding the number of responses to the online questionnaire and the number of countries represented and preliminary results show a clear preference of the respondents for the Joint Undertaking instrument. The Commission concluded the hearing by confirming that a legislative proposal would be adopted before the end of this year.