GPI, AUEB
The main aim of all EU policies is to create an integrated market, not only to dismantle internal barriers and provide conditions for fair trade, but also to give it many of the characteristics of an economic and monetary union.

Any national or regional economic growth is strengthened by a competitive and progressive transportation system - system that is geared to the needs of customers and operated as a sustainable network offering high quality and affordable services. To achieve such a system, policies of all levels have to be coordinated and harmonised. This harmonisation supports not only the economic development and trade but also avoids extra costs to the transport system, and improves the capital and labour productivity within the Union.

To accomplish such an economic success, the policy-making plays an essential role. Certainly there are stimuli to policy development that provide the legal base upon which much policy activity occurs. EU “core” policies are the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Commercial Policy and the Competition Policy that have their roots in the EC Treaty. Nonetheless, it is difficult to say that there is a “standard” EU policy-making process that guarantees the policy development will occur. 

Thus the objective of this study is to review the EU Transport Policy and its channels for policy-making. This includes a summary of progress on existing transport policy documents and policy objectives. We begin the analysis with the White Book’s achievements and finish with the Blue Book’s ones. By doing this, the study focuses on the consistency of policy objectives with all policy instruments, and how they contribute to the development of the EU transportation system.