Brussels, 05/07/2016. By including support for a sustainable travel hierarchy and a doubling of cycling across the EU-28 over the next 10 years, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) own-initiative report on a ‘EU Roadmap for Cycling’ took a big hurdle in the CoR’s Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER).

Rapporteur Kevin Peel, Councillor in the City of Manchester City Council and Labour representative for the North West of England in the CoR, secured a large majority in the COTER Commission in support of his draft opinion, which now needs to get its final approval in CoR plenary in October 2016. After the European Parliament and the Council, the CoR would be the third EU institution to make that call for a genuine EU Cycling strategy.

Subsidiarity is a principle that representatives of Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) do not take lightly. Therefore, the report stresses that LRAs are “the principal players in shaping the conditions for tomorrow’s urban and regional transport and mobility system”, but still sees an EU added value in a number of specific actions, including:

• Calling for ring-fencing at least 10 % of the EU’s transport funds in cycling;
• Proposing that every infrastructure project co-funded by the EU considers cycling and requesting the Commission to establish minimum cycling infrastructure quality criteria for projects co-funded with EU money;
• Supporting to include EuroVelo, the long-distance cycle route network, in the Trans-European Network – Transport (TEN-T);
• Calling for EU recommendations on better speed management and the introduction of 30 km/h (20mph) in urban areas to be the default speed limit, in line with previous recommendations by the European Parliament;
• Advising the Commission to include cycling in its revision of the EU Green Public Procurement criteria for cycling;
• Calling for a common data collection methodology for national data on cycling use, to make it easier for local and national authorities to exchange best practices, case studies and reports;
• Suggesting programs of education on road safety starting in schools, to disseminate information about benefits and good techniques related to cycling;
• Asking the Commission to support a clearing house, equipped with adequate resources, to address LRA’s need for access to best practice, case studies, reports, funding possibilities, etc. on cycling.

Nikolaus von Peter, Adviser of Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, expressed the strong personal support of the Commissioner for cycling and promised that the Commission would look at every single measure the CoR report suggests. However, he reminded CoR members on the Commission’s policy to have very limited Work Programmes. A EU Cycling Strategy/ Roadmap would still need to make the case that it is ‘big’ enough a thing to be included in such a Work Programme (ECF reported about it here).

Francesca Racioppi from the WHO spoke at the event about the health benefits of cycling and the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for cycling, a tool developed by the WHO 10 years ago to measure the economic impact of cycling investments. In her presentation one figure drew the attention: if all EU-citizens between 20 - 74 years old would meet the WHO minimum requirement of physical activity (30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 times a week), 100,000 premature deaths annually could be avoided. Integrating cycling into daily routines, e.g. for commuting, is one of the best ways to meet that requirement, she said.

ECF provided expertise to the rapporteur Kevin Peel in formulating his draft opinion and welcomes the day before yesterday’s result as an important step forward in getting to a genuine EU Cycling Strategy, although it should be borne in mind that the CoR is a consultative body, hence its recommendations are not of a legally binding character.

The consolidated version of the COTER can be found here.