Speeches - Prof. Dr. Bernd Gottschalk

Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I extend a warm welcome to the 58th International Motor Show (IAA) for Commercial Vehicles in Frankfurt am Main, on behalf also of our partners in the organisation of this event, the International Road Transport Union and the Federal Association for Freight Transport, Logistics and Disposal.

A special welcome goes to you, Permanent Secretary Antonio Guilhermino Rodrigues, who have travelled from the beautiful city of Lisbon to represent your minister, Dr. Coelho who, in his role as acting president of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT), intended to address us on the contribution of European transport policy to sustained development in road haulage. At this year's ECMT conference which took place in Prague in May, Europe's transport ministers gave impressive proof of the extent to which their policies in both East and West are designed to ensure sustainability.

Welcome also to you, Mrs. Aloisi de Lalderel who, on behalf of the United Nations, will be explaining the future expectations and objectives of the UN's environmental programme for freight transport.

I am glad also to be able to welcome you, Dr. Jarzembowski, as the representative of the European Parliament. The Parliament's role in helping to shape transport policy in the face of sometimes conflicting financial, social, energy and environmental interests and in the light of its importance in assisting with European integration shows that it is an important decision-making centre within the EU which deserves to be strengthened.

Ladies and gentlemen, the process of the globalisation of business is in full swing. For us Europeans, it has a special dynamic with the political and economic opening up of Central and Eastern Europe and the already agreed schedule for the eastward expansion of the EU. This is setting new challenges to the transport industry in particular. Without commercial vehicles the process of economic and social renewal of Eastern Europe and its linking to the Single European Market would not be feasible.

I should like, at this juncture, to make a plea that European transport policy should not lose sight of the goal of harmonisation and should create a level playing field for competition in the European transport market. Without fairness there can be no sustainability. Harmonisation issues in the fiscal sector and also in social legislation have yet to be resolved in the present EU and are therefore a priority policy task.

To this must be added the current difficulties in the energy policy area because of the explosion in diesel prices. This makes the contribution that the ECMT, the European Parliament and the Commission have already made to the harmonisation of economic and environmental standards in freight transport between East and West all the more important. European politicians have an important role to play in shaping the European commercial vehicle markets.

Ladies and gentlemen, the IRU is an important platform for the German automotive industry because it brings together commercial vehicle manufacturers and road hauliers as members of a common organisation. I am pleased to extend a special welcome to its President, Mr. Green. For all of us involved in the European integration process, the IRU functions as a proven link between the transport industries in East and West.

Germany's Federal Association for Freight Transport, Logistics and Disposal is a trade association which has traditionally worked extremely closely with the German commercial vehicle industry to achieve sustainable road haulage solutions. Mr. Grewer, at this very time we are again engaged together in dialogue with politicians to identify ways of reducing the twin burdens of the high diesel price and the eco-tax. Harmonisation is required, now that other European countries have responded.

Long before the adoption of Agenda 21, the transport industry - both manufacturers and hauliers - successfully addressed a reduction in the negative environmental impacts of road freight transport. The commercial vehicle industry therefore particularly welcomes the IRU Guide for sustained developments in road haulage as an important step towards ensuring a positive development in the areas of road safety, emission control and fuel consumption while at the same time safeguarding road hauliers' operational efficiency and competitiveness.

The commercial vehicle industry has set the environmental standard for this. For example, the fuel consumption of a 40 t tractor-trailer unit has been reduced by around one-third since the ear\y 1970s.

The noise level of new trucks has been considerably lowered. Two dozen of today's commercial vehicles are no louder than a single truck before 1970.

Commercial vehicle exhaust emissions have been declining since the mid-1990s. It has tong been possible to separate pollutant emissions and driving performance or transport output in the road haulage sector. The implementation of the Euro III emission standard from October of this year will bring about a further 30 percent reduction in emission levels. The Heidelberg-based Ifeu-Institute for Energy and Environmental Research has determined that emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and diesel particulates will fall as a result by between 64 and 88 percent for road freight transport by 2015 compared with 1990.

Manufacturers and suppliers will only be able to meet the foreseeable commercial vehicle emission standards for 2005 and 2008 by investing heavily in research and development. It will not be possible to comply with these standards without sophisticated filter systems. For this we need sulphur-free diesel fuel and tax incentives for such fuel in 2003.

All these are issues which Dr. Maier, whom I welcome most warmly as our speaker, will address.

Ladies and gentlemen, I wish every success to this international symposium. I am sure that our discussions and the examples of best practices from various European countries will enable us to identify means of achieving greater sustainability, even at a time when the fuel cost situation is causing a tense atmosphere.

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