Combined goods transport: financial assistance to action pilots PACT

OBJECTIVE: The proposal for a regulation aims to continue and broaden the scope of the current scheme to grant financial assistance for pilot actions to promote combined transport (PACT). SUBSTANCE: The action programme incorporates the main elements of the existing pilot actions, which were launched in 1992 for a five-year experimental period and ended in 1996. Now that these pilot actions have been operating for four years, this proposal converts the scheme into a programme to run for five years starting in 1997. Since the programme is now entering a fully operational phase, the proposal extends the range of budgetary possibilities. The proposal for a regulation specifies the conditions, rules and procedures for granting Community financial assistance to projects, which contribute to the increased use of combined goods transport through: - increasing the competitiveness of combined transport, both in terms of price and of service quality, as against road transport, or - promoting the use of advanced technology in combined transport, or - improving access to combined transport for undertakings, regardless of their size. �