It is a fine example of co-modality in passenger transport.

Mr Koch spoke about co-modality in tourism and he is right.

Co-modality must also work in favour of passengers.

We have to develop the railway infrastructure, the maritime corridors, the ports infrastructure and co-modality.

It will also strengthen co-modality and hence contribute towards an efficient and sustainable transport system.

In addition to co-modality in certain areas, the modal shift, in our view, plays an important role especially with regard to long-distance transport.

Thirdly, thanks to this proposal, it will be possible to integrate the railways into the freight transport system more successfully, and to develop co-modality in Europe.

This goes not only for interaction between airports, but also for interaction with other modes of transport and infrastructures surrounding airports ('co-modality').

Unless we liberalise our ports resolutely, they will not be able to expand the key role they will be required to play in the context of co-modality.

They also support co-modality, including by developing interfaces with other modes of transport such as rail, waterways and aviation, which started to incorporate intelligent transport systems a long time ago.

For the European commission the co-modality refers to a "use of different modes on their own and in combination" in the aim to obtain "an optimal and sustainable utilisation of resources".

The availability of comprehensive and homogenous statistics by type of goods for all modes of transport would provide a useful general framework for supporting and supervising the policy promoting co-modality.

By modernising goods transport logistics and promoting co-modality, i.e. combining various modes of transport within the same transport chain, we have the opportunity to increase the prosperity of the Baltic region.

The co-modality is a notion introduced by the European commission in 2006 in the field of the transport policy to define an approach of the globality of the transport modes and of their combinations.

Transport infrastructures, vehicles and vessels, modal share, co-modality, urban planning, energy and environment issues are the subject of extensive studies, research works and industrial innovations, conducted by universities, research institutes, companies, practitioners, and public authorities.

We must promote co-modality of the various modes of transport, not forgetting motorways of the sea and inland waterways; most of all we must incorporate the real costs, including environmental costs, into the price of use.

I believe that the mandatory collection of data by type of goods with a view to collating maritime transport statistics is vital in order to promote co-modality and the possibility of combining different modes of transport.

To this end I am convinced that co-modality - that is, the rational and optimum use of all modes of transport on their own and in combination - must become one of the guiding rules behind our thinking and action.

Maritime transport is, without a shadow of a doubt, a competitive advantage for Europe, but much remains to be done to promote intermodality and co-modality, which also involves the repositioning of maritime transport as a truly competitive alternative.

I welcome this proposal, since its aim is to make the collection of data by type of goods obligatory for maritime transport statistics, which allows a useful general framework for supporting and monitoring the policy of promoting co-modality.

Today at the very moment when we are at last beginning again to tackle the problems of interoperability, it therefore seems to me worrying that, under cover of co-modality, the objectives of modal shift towards rail, in particular, move into the background.

I feel we cannot miss out on the chance to apply such an important exercise to all means of transport, since all of them are involved, and we need credible solutions for all of them in coherence with the co-modality proposal.

You also supported the concept of co-modality and we must indeed, in order to make a success of the modal shift, reduce the negative impacts of all modes of transport precisely so as to ensure the environmental efficiency and performance of each mode of transport.

In conclusion, I would simply like the Commission to include in its future work the logistical aspect and relations with cargo aviation, which is becoming increasingly popular and is a possible alternative in terms of the 'co-modality' suggested by the revision of the White Paper.

This information provides a general framework that is useful for supporting and monitoring the policy of promoting co-modality, namely, the possibility of achieving the optimum combination of different modes of transport in the same transport chain, along with the modernisation of freight logistics.