In order to underline the importance of making cities and their transport systems more accessible, fluid, greener and safer, the CIVITAS Forum has chosen to focus this year on the main ideas of the Green Paper on Urban Mobility and its Action Plan, foreseen in the autumn of 2008. The Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport, M. Jacques Barrot, is expected to present this new Action Plan.

Change is possible only if the challenge of a new culture for urban mobility is shared by institutions and citizens. Fortunately, these concepts are becoming a priority not only in the minds of city administrators but also in the collective consciousness of society, with tangible results in cities throughout Europe. However, there is still a long way to go, with perhaps the most formidable obstacle posed by the natural opposition of vested interests, which often brings institutions, corporations and even individual citizens to costly stalemates. The consequence is often a serious limitation of the capacity to implement innovative and radical policies capable of going along with and at the same time guide a rapidly moving society.

The CIVITAS Forum 2008 represents a great opportunity for transport professionals and politicians to exchange views on key urban challenges and to foresee a new joint plan of actions to tackle them!

The first draft programme of the CIVITAS Forum 2008 will be available on the CIVITAS website by end of May 2008 and will be updated on a regularly basis

http://www.civitas-initiative.eu