The EU Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, in charge of Transport announced today the action plan at EU level to tackle the chronic problems created by transport in Europe’s towns and cities. Speaking at the CIVITAS II Final Conference, held in Toulouse on January 21, 2009, he noted that for Europe to meet its commitments on climate change, energy security and environmental pollution, all actors at EU level, cities, Member States and the EU, need to work together to find solutions to the congestion and environmental problems that plague our cities. Vice President Tajani emphasised his strong commitment to the adoption of a comprehensive Action Plan following extensive consultation on the Green Paper “Towards a new culture for urban mobility”, which the Commission published in 2007. He outlined in more detail the actions that will be launched by the Commission during 2009. These will include actions to assist public authorities with the implementation of a new Directive for promoting clean and energy-efficient vehicles, as well as funding support for pilot projects and studies on various aspects of sustainable urban mobility. Some 300 politicians and experts from over 20 countries gathered in Toulouse to discuss the findings of the 50M€ European Commission funded CIVITAS II programme. CIVITAS II is the second of three phases of CIVITAS which is benefiting from a total of 180M€ support from the Commission. The CIVITAS Forum is a network of politicians and transport experts from over 130 cities in nearly 30 European countries.