The stakeholders and public authorities within the Strategic Urban Region of the Eurodelta (SURE) have elaborated, with the support of the ESPON program, a strategic policy roadmap towards a more sustainable cross border transport and travel infrastructure within the region of the Randstad, Belgian regions, Nord Pas de Calais, and the Ruhr and Rheinland. A part of this strategy is four policy measures banning short distance aviation to, from, and within SURE, the installation of Zero Emission Zones in all cities which have less than 100,000 inhabitants, improvements of cross-border public railways, and an integrated approach on Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

This high-level ESPON event will discuss the outcomes of the study, including the policy roadmaps on two policy measures, in order to outline a possible follow-up for Belgium. Similar events will be organised in the Netherlands, Germany, and France in the next few months, in order to draft an integrated program shortly after the summer of 2022. The objective of the event is not only to discuss how ESPON knowledge and strategies can be implemented in real life practice, but also to inspire other regions in Europe to follow this example of the Eurodelta towards a better use of trans-European knowledge and case studies.

For that purpose, some questions that will be discussed during the event include:

• How can private and semi-private stakeholders contribute to a more ecologically and economically sustainable cross-border transport infrastructure?
• How can national, regional, and local authorities contribute to the intended reduction in transport-related greenhouse emissions outlined in the European Green Deal?
• Which roles and under which framework could each of these partners work together towards a more sustainable future for transport and travel infrastructure?

The ESPON territorial evidence gathered in the STISE (“Sustainable Transport Infrastructure in the Strategic Urban Region Eurodelta) survey will serve as background and will nurture the discussions around these three questions.

Presentations

French Presentations

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