The transport industry occupies an important position in the Community, accounting for 7 % of its GNP, 7 % of total employment, 40 % of Member States' investment and 30 % of Community energy consumption. Demand, particularly in intra-Community traffic, has grown more or less constantly for the last 20 years, by 2.3 % a year for goods and 3.1 % for passengers.
The advent of the single market marked a turning point in the common transport policy, since the abolition of frontiers and other liberalization measures. Of course in those measures the liberalization of cabotage was also included.…