Cycling has made enormous progress in its integration into EU transport policy over the last few years. It’s impossible to talk about that progress without talking about Irish MEP Ciarán Cuffe.

Elected to the European Parliament in 2019 as a part of the ‘Green wave’ that saw many Green Party politicians elected to office around Europe, Mr Cuffe, from Dublin, Ireland, is one among a small handful of European parliamentarians who can claim significant responsibility for helping to make cycling recognised as a full mode of transport.

Chief among these is his leadership in revising the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which the parliament adopted in March 2024. As a member of the Transport and Tourism Committee, Mr Cuffe was the parliament’s point-person for the EBPD in a process that took more than two years of negotiations with EU Member States and the Commission. It is a vast law that aims to make the EU’s buildings more energy efficient. Cycling is a major part of it: new buildings and those undergoing major renovation must provide at least two bike parking spaces for every residential unit. Non-residential buildings, such as offices and shopping centres, must have bike parking, representing at least 15% of the average or 10% of the total user capacity of the building. Mr Cuffe was an early proponent of these requirements and ensured they were in the final text.

ECF spoke with Mr Cuffe in early May to discuss his re-election campaign for the European Parliament, how cycling fits into his personal and professional life, and why he is endorsing ECF’s European Elections campaign, https://votebike.eu. Below are his responses from our short interview.

Mr Cuffe, what does cycling mean to you?

Cycling is a huge part of my life. I am an all-weather cyclist. I have been biking for the last 40 years, not just in Dublin but also in Strasbourg and Brussels, for parliamentary business. For me, cycling is like wearing clothes; I’m so immersed in it.

Cycling is an amazing way to get around, be healthy, and keep the air clean. If we had more people cycling, cities would be more pleasant to live in.

The Transport & Tourism Committee (also known as TRAN) has been quite conservative when it comes to environmental issues during the last years, so it has been an uphill battle not just for getting cycling recognised but also getting the EPBD adopted. But I’m delighted that we have made progress and that there has been a sustained renaissance of cycling in EU policy.

How were the negotiations around the bike parking measures in the EPBD?

We managed to make a serious contribution to this in the EPBD by mandating storage for bikes in residential and non-residential buildings.

It is no use replacing one million petrol cars with one million electric cars. We need to have a modal shift in transport, with overall less people driving and more people walking and cycling.

The Commission’s original EPBD proposal already included good content for bike parking, which we managed to largely keep. There was some politicisation around the issue of ‘don’t tell us what to do in our homes,’ but that was more for other parts of the huge file that required deeper negotiation. In truth, the bike parking requirements were incorporated without much discussion. As a result, cycling will become more normalised.

How do you think you will be able to support cycling if re-elected?

A lot of work on cycling has been done on the big transport files, such as the Trans-European Transport Network Regulation and the EU Rail Passenger Rights Regulation.

But there are smaller projects that are just as important. Cross-border rail services need to be improved to make it easier for people to carry their bikes on their train journeys. We need to keep improving urban environments, where so many of us live, to facilitate more walking and cycling. We also need to do more to improve road safety for people who walk and cycle, which can be done by re-engineering the public space to be safer rather than by telling people to wear bright clothing and lights all over themselves. There will be scope in EU legislation to do all this, and I want to be a part of it.

Finally, what is your outlook on what the next European Parliament could look like?

I think the momentum is going the right way for Green politicians and constituents who care about the environment and climate.

We need to keep tackling climate change, and cycling is a huge part of that.

The narrative over the last few months is that the far-right will do well in the June European elections, and the Greens will lose ground. No one seems to be challenging that. But during the last elections in 2019, the Greens surged ahead in late spring. In Ireland, the Greens are doing better in the polls than five years ago. Narratives change all the time; I’m not convinced that the far-right will have a landslide.

During the COVID pandemic, collectively, we learned a lot about spending time in our neighbourhoods and investing in liveable communities and how having good cycling infrastructure contributes to that. This is why I think it is important for the European Parliament to keep making progress on cycling so that all Europeans can enjoy its benefits.

For more information on ECF’s #VoteBikeEU campaign for the European elections in June, visit: https://votebike.eu/