I attended the transport session of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council, held in Luxembourg on 12 October. The Finnish Minister for Transport and Communications, Mrs Susanna Huovinen, was in the chair.

The Council held a debate on the Communication "Keep Europe Moving—Sustainable Mobility for our Continent", the Commission's mid-term review of the 2001 Transport White Paper. Ministers generally welcomed the new focus on co-modality (getting the best from each transport mode) and other themes included better regulation, road safety, tackling environmental impacts, efficient logistics and financing of infrastructure. I was among Ministers who spoke in favour of aviation emissions trading and continuing rail liberalisation.

The Commission introduced its Communication "Freight Transport Logistics in Europe—the key to sustainable mobility", and reaffirmed its commitment to bring forward an action plan in the autumn of 2007. The presidency aim is for council conclusions on the Communication to be agreed at the December Council.

The Council reached a general approach on two regulations providing for the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) to be closed and for its responsibilities to be transferred to the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA). The GJU is to be wound up by amending Council Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 which set it up, and its responsibilities are to be transferred to the GSA by amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 which had established and defined the responsibilities of the GSA. In response to the Commission's report on the progress of Galileo in its Communication: 'Taking stock of the Galileo programme,' the Council also adopted a set of Council Conclusions which urged more tangible progress. The texts of the two Regulations and the Council Conclusions were acceptable to the United Kingdom.

During debate on wider aspects of the programme including the concession contract, I reiterated the UK's position that Galileo was a civil programme under civil control. In discussions on third country participation in Galileo, the Commission said it was essential to define the roles and terms for third country participation and that it was reflecting further on these issues before bringing forward a draft mandate for relations with international partners. The Commission announced that a Green Paper on applications for the programme will be published by the end of the year.

The Council reached Political Agreement on the Regulation on common rules in the field of civil aviation security, which will replace the 2002 Regulation. The agreed text was acceptable to the UK. The Commission noted that the events in August in London demonstrated the importance of agreeing this legislation as soon as possible.

The presidency will continue its contact with the European Parliament, to work towards agreement on the text.

I provided a summary of the UK response to the August security events and lessons learnt. I thanked the Commission and other Member States for their work in reaching a prompt agreement on new security measures.

The Commission gave a progress report on EU-US air transport negotiations: they reported that no progress had been made since the previous Council, due to the political situation in Washington. However, they reaffirmed their commitment to delivering a balanced deal. Movement from the US would be needed in order to achieve this. They were ready to continue their efforts to encourage the US to move forward, so that the target date of 31 December, as agreed at the last EU-US summit, might be respected. While understanding the frustration expressed at the lack of progress, I pointed out that we were still some way from reaching a balanced deal. But without significant progress from the US side, we were in danger of getting nothing. The presidency summed up the discussion with presidency conclusions.

The Commission provided Council with an update on discussions with Russia about payments for Siberian overflights. The Commission is aiming to reach agreement in time for the EU-Russia Summit in Helsinki on 24 November.

Under AOB, the presidency gave a report on the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) meeting on transport on 8 September.

Agreed without debate were: a Council Decision on signature of the Transport Protocol of the Alpine Convention; and adoption of the Regulation establishing the second "Marco Polo" programme for the granting of Community financial assistance to improve the environmental performance of the freight transport system ("Marco Polo II").

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