The European Commission recently adopted the White Paper “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area —Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system”, which also announced that the European Commission will develop “a sustainable alternative fuels strategy including also the appropriate infrastructure.” In this context, the European Commission has initiated the Clean Transport Systems (CTS) initiative.

Under the CTS initiative, the European Commission is preparing to launch, in the first quarter of 2012, a Communication on alternative transport fuels. The Communication will present a comprehensive long-term alternative fuel strategy for the EU covering the whole transport sector and will identify possible future actions in this area.

The strategy should provide the industry, public sector and consumers with a clear and coherent vision, and should help to accelerate the use of alternative transport fuels in the EU. Action at the EU level should facilitate EU-wide circulation of vehicles powered by alternative fuels.

In order to facilitate the implementation of the strategy and to actively stimulate the market development of alternative fuels, the European Commission is considering putting forward, together with the Communication, a legislative proposal on alternative fuel infrastructure requirements.

The consultation is being launched in an electronic form. Interested parties are invited to send their comments, suggestions and replies to the questionnaire to the Commission services by 6 October 2011.

Contributions received in reply to the consultation will be handled by a consultant and used by the Commission services. A summary of the consultation's results will be published on the Commission's website.