1. Calls for short sea shipping to be promoted more strongly as a credible, sustainable and safe link in the European transport system which is well integrated in the transport chain thanks, for example, to inland waterway transport and rail links, in order to reduce congestion; calls for the modal shift from road transport to short sea shipping to be encouraged and for links to be improved with outlying and island areas and states dependent on maritime transport and between regions separated by natural barriers, whilst strengthening cohesion within the European Union and between the Union and its neighbours;

7. Stresses the potential of short sea shipping as a complementary mode of transport available very quickly and at low cost pending completion of certain trans-European transport network railway infrastructures; stresses, for example, the pressing need for alternative means of transport between France and Spain pending the opening, in about 2020, of a connection between Montpellier and Figueras;

(5) The Marco Polo programme features three types of action: (1) modal shift actions, which should focus on shifting as much cargo as possible under current market conditions from road to the more environment friendly short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways; such actions should not lead to a shift of freight flows between short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways, unless the share of freight transport by road in the transport chain is thereby substantially reduced; (2) catalyst actions, which should change the way non-road freight transport is conducted in the Community; and (3) common learning actions, whi ...[+++]ch should enhance knowledge in the freight logistics sector and foster advanced methods and procedures of cooperation in the freight market and support the formation of a common political will in cross-border transport projects ; catalyst actions and common leaning actions should not lead to a shift of freight flows between short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways .

Contrasting overall (cross-border and domestic) distance marketing of general goods and services with distance marketing of financial services, the most recent Eurobarometer shows that while in 2007, over half (52%) of all Europeans made a purchase of goods or services by distance marketing in the European Union[7], the figure for financial services by distance marketing was much lower, at 12%[8].

(a) "distance contract" means any contract concerning financial services concluded between a supplier and a consumer under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme run by the supplier, who, for the purpose of that contract, makes exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded.

(a)‘distance contract’ means any contract concerning financial services concluded between a supplier and a consumer under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme run by the supplier, who, for the purpose of that contract, makes exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded.