Belgian transport minister, Georges Gilkinet, announced the signage of the cycling declaration to an audience of hundreds during a pre-recorded speech during the World Bicycle Day webinar organised by the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) on 3 June.

Belgian Transport Minister Georges Gilkinet making his announcement on World Bicycle Day 2022.

Co-signed by transport ministers from Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, the declaration calls on the European Commission “to develop and implement an EU level strategic policy on cycling,” based on the EU Cycling Strategy that ECF developed in 2017 along with its partners.

Boosting cycling modal share across the EU

The signatories urge the Commission to create a strategy that enables them to use their existing competencies s to boost the cycling modal share across Europe and identify the EU policy and funding instruments where provisions for cycling can be built on or strengthened.

They also urge the Commission to assess further steps to enable bicycle carriage on maritime vessels, coaches and buses; to instruct Eurostat to develop knowledge and data on cycling and to ensure cycling infrastructure is included in projects and networks associated with Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

What’s more, the signatory ministers request that the Commission make 2024 the European Year of Cycling, to “showcase Europe’s cultural heritage and role as a global leader in cycling.”

The potential of the European Bicycle Declaration

The European Bicycle Declaration is the latest in a series of pro-cycling declarations signed by European governments and public authorities.

The most recent is the Pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion, adopted in May 2021 and covering 54 countries, including all 27 EU member states. It was developed under the umbrella of the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP), which is coordinated by World Health Organization (WHO) Europe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

The plan has set a key objective to double the level of cycling in all countries by 2030 and to have national cycling strategies in place for all participating countries. ECF had a key role in the development of several parts of this plan and continues to engage with governments to promote continued investment in cycling infrastructure.

Crucially, the new European Cycling Declaration convenes a coalition of European governments to push the European Commission and fellow EU member states, to accelerate policy planning, financial investments and other capacities to increase cycling modal share as quickly as possible.

Signatory ministers have emphasized the huge benefits that come with cycling. They highlighted the emissions savings “translating into more than 16 million tons of CO2 equivalents per year across the EU,” and the cuts in air pollution which cause 400,000 premature deaths, as well as the improvements in road safety and mobility flows in urban areas. To them, the value of the bicycle is clear: “Bicycles are the most efficient way to transport one passenger for short distances.”

More policy integration for more political wins for cycling

The declaration is right to underscore the need for a comprehensive EU-level cycling strategy.

Cycling has gradually become part of more mobility policies at the EU and national levels. But without a comprehensive EU strategy, these policies will not be integrated into the EU’s larger vision and ambition to prioritise cycling in its climate strategy, especially reaching its CO2 emission reduction goals.

For example, cycling has a prominent place in the European Commission’s new Urban Mobility Framework, and cities representing TEN-T urban nodes will need to increase cycling’s modal share in their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans.

Cycling is also included in the proposed revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which aspires to regulate more bicycle parking in residential and non-residential buildings.

ECF successfully campaigned for the inclusion of cycling within the 2021 revision of the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings. (EPBD)

Additionally, the proposed Social Climate Fund will likely include direct financial support for Europeans, who purchase or lease bicycles.

The proposed revision of the TEN-T Regulation incorporates cycling but can be significantly improved by integrating the EuroVelo long-distance cycle route network into TEN-T and spurring the development of surrounding local networks.

Most recently, the Commission’s REPowerEU and EU Save Energy communications underlined the ability of cycling to achieve significant energy savings, which ECF echoed in a recent paper describing how the EU and national governments can embrace cycling as a means toward achieving energy independence.

At the national level, dozens of EU countries have adopted national cycling strategies or are in the process of drafting them for the first time. Cities around Europe are at the vanguard of increasing cycling’s modal share, such as Paris which has undergone an impressive transformation due to a mix of resolute political leadership and swift infrastructure development.Many of the cities that installed temporary cycling infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns were those that had existing cycling or mobility strategies in place and were able to quickly implement them.

Cities with existing cycling strategies, such as the Plan Velo in Paris, were more effective at implementing pandemic cycling measures than less well-prepared cycling cities.

The need for the EU to deliver a vision for cycling in Europe

Unfortunately, despite the new concerns about the rise in energy prices brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, mixed with a return to the car-driving status quo that existed pre-pandemic, the recent advances in cycling are now at risk of stalling.

The solution to this is the development of an EU strategy that ties all these threads together and sets a European-wide ambition to raise the modal share of cycling.

An EU strategy, kicked off with the European Year of Cycling in 2024, would be a powerful way to harness the EU’s significant spending and regulatory power, and to set common goals and objectives for all EU member states to achieve, so that everyday cycling is not merely something that is big in one city or another, but commonplace all over Europe.

In the meantime, ECF will continue to work with the signatories to the European Bicycle Declaration to realise their ambitions and attract more EU governments to the cause of more and better cycling for all.