24.11.2006 Official Journal of the European Union L 328/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) REGULATION (EC) No 1692/2006 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 October 2006 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) and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EURO- PEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Articles 71(1) and 80(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), After consulting the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (2), Whereas: (1)  The Commission White Paper on the Common Transport Policy of September 2001 stresses the development of intermodality as a practical and effective means to achieve a balanced transport system, and proposes not only the development of Motorways of the Sea, high-quality inte- grated intermodal maritime options, but also the more intensive use of rail and inland waterway transport as key elements in this strategy. At its meeting in Gothenburg on 15 and 16 June 2001 the European Council declared that shifting the balance between the modes of transport is at the heart of the sustainable development strategy. Furthermore, at its meeting in Barcelona on 15 and 16 March 2002 the European Council stressed the neces- sity of reducing congestion in the traffic bottlenecks in several regions, mentioning in particular the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Baltic Sea — an indication that the mari- time lines of the Motorways of the Sea are an integral and important part of the Trans-European Transport (1) OJ C 234, 22.9.2005, p. 19. (?) Opinion of the European Parliament of 17 May 2006 (not yet pub- lished in the Official Journal) and Decision of the Council of 12 Octo- ber 2006. Network. A market-driven funding programme for inter- modality is a central instrument to further develop inter- modality and should specifically support the set-up of Motorways of the Sea, ensuring, inter alia, an improve- ment in economic, social and territorial cohesion, and in rail and inland waterway transport. (2)  If no decisive action is taken, total road freight transport in Europe is set to grow by more than 60 % by 2013. The effect would be an estimated growth in international road freight for the period 2007 to 2013 of 20,5 billion tonne-kilometres per year for the 25 Member States of the European Union, with negative consequences in terms of additional road infrastructure costs, accidents, congestion, local and global pollution, the reliability of the supply chain and of logistics processes and environmental damage. (3)  In order to cope with this growth in road freight trans- port, short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways must be used even more than today, and it is necessary to stimu- late further powerful initiatives from the transport and logistics sector, for instance the development of technical innovations in rolling stock, to decrease road congestion. (4 The programme established by Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2003 on the granting of Community financial assistance to improve the environmental perfor- mance of the freight transport system (the Marco Polo Pro- gramme) (3) should therefore be enhanced by new actions, aimed at an actual reduction in international road trans- port. The Commission therefore has proposed a stronger programme, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Marco Polo 1I Programme’, or ‘the Programme’, to enhance intermodal- ity, reduce road congestion and improve the environmen- tal performance of the freight transport system within the Community. To achieve this objective, the Programme should support actions in the freight transport, logistics (*) OJ L 196, 2.8.2003, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 788/2004 (O] L 138, 30.4.2004, p. 17).