Considering the EU goals of creating an area of free movement, of common justice and of shared environmental objectives, does the Council agree that it makes sense for drivers who fail to respect local, regional or national traffic laws within the EU, for instance through non-payment of a road user charge, breach of a low emission or green zone, or driving or parking in a reserved bus or tram lane, to have a penalty enforced against them whatever their Member State of nationality or residence?

Welcomes the Franco-German heavy transport helicopter project, but is also aware of the complex reasons for the shortage of available and operational helicopters, mostly related to the high costs of flight hours and maintenance; invites the Council to explore possibilities designed to bridge the gap for the near future, either by a joint action or by supporting Member States in the refurbishing and upgrading of Russian-built helicopters as well as establishing a helicopter training centre; reiterates that, generally, one of the principal obstacles to modernising and transforming European forces so as to enable them to ...[+++]cope effectively with the security challenges of the 21st century is not the level of defence expenditure but rather the lack of cooperation, the absence of a clear division of labour and specialisation, and the duplication and fragmentation in arms production and procurement, which increase the risk of non-interoperability between armies; however, urges the Member States to envisage an increase in defence expenditure for the concrete purpose of being able to make efficient use of acquired helicopters;

To make passenger and freight transport easier using low-emission modes of transport such as rail, river, sea and public transport, a range of new services, more competitive organisation of the sector and different ways of using certain infrastructure are needed simultaneously.

The provisions of this Regulation shall, in the field of transport by rail, road and inland waterway, apply both to all agreements, decisions and concerted practices which have as their object or effect the fixing of transport rates and conditions, the limitation or control of the supply of transport, the sharing of transport markets, the application of technical improvements or technical cooperation, or the joint financing or acquisition of transport equipment or supplies where such operations are directly related to the provision of transport services and are necessary for the joint operation of services by a grouping within the meanin ...[+++]g of Article 3 of road or inland waterway transport undertakings, and to the abuse of a dominant position on the transport market.

It is asymmetric, limited to a few rare sectors, such as transport, communication and finance and in fact only concerns the OECD countries plus a dozen more or less developing countries, whereas the majority of third world countries remain under-developed.

1. Once a common system of turnover tax has been adopted by the Council and brought into force in the Member States, the taxation systems applied in the road and inland waterway sectors to, respectively, carriage of goods by transport undertakings and carriage of goods by other undertakings for their own requirements shall be aligned within each Member State in such a way as to make these systems equivalent in effect.