To support the transition to cleaner, greener, and smarter mobility, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Commission today adopted four proposals that will modernize the EU's transport system. By increasing connectivity and shifting more passengers and freight to rail and inland waterways, by supporting the roll-out of charging points, alternative refueling infrastructure, and new digital technologies, by placing a stronger focus on sustainable urban mobility, and by making it easier to choose different transport options in an efficient multimodal transport system, the proposals will put the transport sector on track to cutting its emissions by 90%. 

A smart and sustainable TEN-T: The TEN-T is an EU-wide network of rail, inland waterways, short-sea shipping routes, and roads. It connects 424 major cities with ports, airports, and railway terminals. When the TEN-T is complete, it will cut travel times between these cities.

The scope of the Workshop is to specify a common reference framework and a methodology that allow to evaluate, score, and report the Level of Competence of professionals and workers with regards to specific Areas of Expertise related to energy efficiency and sustainability at building and urban scale (TRAIN4SUSTAIN Competence Quality Standard). The TRAIN4SUSTAIN Competence Quality Standard framework can be defined as a hierarchical classification (taxonomy), structured into 5 levels, which covers the broad scope of energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings and urban areas and reflects the approaches of the most relevant sustainability certification systems at building and urban scale, including the recent Level(s) framework of core sustainability indicators issued by European Commission in October 2020. The TRAIN4SUSTAIN CQS is a living and extendible system that can evolve over time as it is able to receive new inputs for instance, new areas of expertise related to the development of construction technologies, materials, and methodologies, also fulfilling its “future-looking” mission.

he Commission has taken action to improve the cybersecurity of wireless devices available on the European market. As mobile phones, smart watches, fitness trackers and wireless toys are more and more present in our everyday life, cyber threats pose a growing risk for every consumer. The delegated act to the Radio Equipment Directive adopted today aims to make sure that all wireless devices are safe before being sold on the EU market. This act lays down new legal requirements for cybersecurity safeguards, which manufacturers will have to consider in the design and production of the concerned products. It will also protect citizens' privacy and personal data, prevent the risks of monetary fraud as well as ensure better resilience of our communication networks. The delegated act will be complemented by a Cyber Resilience Act, recently announced by President von der Leyen in the State of the Union speech, which would aim to cover more products, looking at their whole life cycle. Today's proposal as well as the upcoming Cyber Resilience Act follow up on the actions announced in the new EU Cybersecurity Strategy presented in December 2020.

The Commission has adopted three work programs for the Digital Europe Programme, outlining the objectives and specific topic areas that will receive a total of €1.98 billion in funding. This first set of work programs includes strategic investments that will be instrumental in realizing the Commission's goals in making this Europe's Digital Decade. The Digital Europe Program aims to bolster Europe's technological sovereignty and bring digital solutions to market for the benefit of citizens, public administrations, and businesses.

The main work program, worth €1.38 billion, will focus on investment in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and data spaces, quantum communication infrastructure, advanced digital skills, and the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society, until the end of 2022. Alongside this main work program, the Commission published two specific work programs: the first one focuses on funding around cybersecurity, with a budget of €269 million until the end of 2022; and the second one focuses on the set-up and operation of the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs, with a budget of €329 million, until the end of 2023.

The European Committee of Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) renewed their cooperation agreement for further five years. Through the agreement, the three organizations aim to enhance the exchange of knowledge and expertise between scientific research and European standardization. The JRC and the European Committee of Standardization look back on a fruitful collaboration of more than 30 years, with its first agreement signed in 1994. The renewal of the collaboration with JRC, initiated in 2016, will continue to provide European and international standardization with scientific input and it will build on lessons learnt and successes achieved. 

One of the main initiatives developed jointly by CEN, CENELEC and JRC is Putting-Science-Into-Standards (PSIS), which aims to facilitate the identification of emerging science and technology areas that could benefit from standardization activities. The PSIS initiative has proven to be a successful example of foresight aimed at the timely identification of new sectors where standardization can enable innovation and promote industrial competitiveness.

The European Union has today committed to increase the role of trade in the fight against climate change and protecting the environment. It has signed up to three new initiatives to step up joint action in the World Trade Organization, sending a strong political signal on pursuing a strong environmental agenda for trade. The EU and a significant number of WTO countries will now work jointly on facilitating trade in green goods and services, promoting sustainable supply chains and the circular economy. They will also cooperate on battling plastic pollution and to enhance transparency of fossil fuel subsidies.

The Commission adopted a Communication on Sustainable Carbon Cycles, setting out how to increase removals of carbon from the atmosphere. To balance out the impacts of our CO2 emissions, the EU will need to drastically reduce its reliance on fossil carbon, upscale carbon farming to store more carbon in nature, and promote industrial solutions to sustainably and verifiably remove and recycle carbon. Removing and storing more carbon, from the atmosphere, oceans, and coastal wetlands, is essential to achieve the EU's legally binding commitment to become climate neutral by 2050. The Communication sets out short- to medium-term actions to support carbon farming and upscale this green business model to better reward land managers for carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection. By 2030, carbon farming initiatives should contribute 42Mt of CO2 storage to Europe's carbon sinks.