On 23 February 2021, the Commission proposed to set up 10 new European Partnerships between the Union, Member States and/or the industry in order to speed up the transition towards a green, climate neutral and digital Europe and to make European industry more resilient and competitive, thereby achieving the European Green Deal’s objectives.

Part of Horizon Europe, the European partnerships aim at addressing some of the Union’s most pressing challenges through concerted initiatives which, by mobilising public and private resources, contribute to a better investments’ management reducing the fragmentation of the European research and innovation landscape. More particularly, the Union will provide almost €10 billion of funding, to be matched with at least an equivalent amount of investment by partners, which, in turn, should mobilise the additional investments needed to create long-term positive impacts on employment, environment and society.

There are three specific partnerships with regard to the transport sector.

In the first place, a clean aviation partnership aiming, on the one hand, at accelerating the development of disruptive research and innovation solutions and, on the other hand, at developing the next generation of ultra-efficient low-carbon aircraft. This way, a greater competitiveness and employment in the aviation sector will help to decrease net emissions of greenhouse gasses by no less than 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. 

In the second place, a partnership in the rail sector which, in the wake of the European Year of Rail, the Commission’s initiative to encourage and support the efforts of the Union, Member States and several stakeholders to increase the share of passengers and freight moving by rail, will speed up the deployment of innovative technologies, thereby achieving a radical transformation of the system and resulting in a market uptake of up to 75% by 2030.

Finally, a Single European Sky ATM Research partnership, which aims to accelerate its technological transformation aligning it to the digital age and to support the competitiveness and recovery of Europe’s aviation sector following the coronavirus crisis, increasing its flexibility and encouraging an always more consistent use of unmanned aircraft. The initiative follows the Commission’s proposal to upgrade the Single European Sky regulatory framework in order to take into account the objectives of the European Green Deal establishing more sustainable and efficient flightpaths and reducing up to 10% of air transport emissions.

Marco Stillo