INVESTMENTS IN MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT, A KEY ELEMENT OF EUROPEAN POLICY TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

Abstract

Transport is an essential element in achieving European Union desideratum to create a dynamic economy and social cohesion at European level. Continuous growth of goods volume and of the number of people that move daily in the European area, most of them by car, determined a deep imbalance between various ways of transport, road transport winning the battle with other modes of transport – by train and naval. At the same time, by all ways of transport, road transport has the biggest energy consumption and is the main polluter of the environment. In the last ten years, European Union policy in transport field knows a growing approach on transport sustainable development problem. Considering this, this paper aims to highlight positive connotations that multimodal transport development may have in rebalancing transport modes and hence on economic efficiency growth and environmental protection.European Union, multimodal, policy, sustainability, transport.