While the completion of the Single European Transport Area (SETA) continues to be work in progress, new global challenges – namely climate change and digitalisation – are exerting additional pressure on, but also offer new opportunities for the European transport sector.
Being Europe’s largest energy consumer, the transport sector accounts for roughly 30% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and is the second-largest expenditure for EU households, only after housing. As such, transport has a central role to play in tackling some of Europe’s most pressing challenges, namely climate, energy and growth.
The European Green Deal and subsequent Fit for 55 Package call for deep transformations across the transport sector, which will have to collectively reduce its emissions by 90% by mid-century as compared to 1990 levels. The ongoing Ukraine war, on the other hand, has brought energy security concerns to the forefront, further underscoring the need to accelerate Europe’s transition away from fossil fuels. These come on top of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have severely impeded the transport sector’s capabilities to make the necessary investments into green technologies, sustainable fuels and efficiency gains.
Digitalisation, on the other hand, is adding a new layer of complexity onto transport; yet, if carefully regulated, digitalisation has the potential to advance EU sustainability objectives, while increasing efficiency, enabling smoother and more customer-oriented operations and, not least, enhancing safety.

Against this backdrop, this first FSR Summer School on Transport Regulation will enable participants to learn about the fundamental regulatory principles of the transport sector through hands-on activities based on real cases and examples with instructors from academia, national regulatory authorities and ministries, the European Commission and the industry. Additionally, participants will deep dive into the most pressing transversal issues affecting the transport and mobility sectors, namely digitalisation, decarbonisation and sustainability, along with resilience. The programme will dedicate a full day to studying each of these topics.

After completing this course participants will have:

• gained a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental regulatory principles of the EU’s transport and mobility sectors;
• acquired knowledge of the most pressing transversal issues affecting transport and mobility, namely digitalisation, decarbonisation, and resilience; and
• the ability to recognise the main limitations of the liberalisation agenda in transport;
• obtained a solid understanding of the main policy and technology tools available to tackle decarbonise transport while making it smarter and more resilient;
• familiarised themselves with best practices and experiences across the different transport modes.

The course is aimed at:

• Transport regulation experts and beginners
• Professionals engaged in the different transport modes
• New stakeholders in the transport and mobility sectors
• Government agencies
• Regulatory bodies
• NGOs
• European and national transport-related associations

Please note that for this course only a selected number of participants will be admitted. 

Applicants shall meet the following admission requirements:

• Completion of online registration
• Identification of two topics of interest that fall within the scope of the summer school’s focus (digitalisation, decarbonisation, railways, aviation, multimodality) and to be discussed during the course.

Course Programme

Monday 10 July 2023
9:00 – 9:45 Introduction to the Summer School
9:45 – 10:00 Coffee break
10:00 – 12:00 Challenges for the transport sector
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 15:00 The imitations of the liberalisation approach in light of the new challenges

Tuesday 11 July 2023
9:00 – 9:45 Keynote Sustainability
9:45 – 10:00 Coffee break
10:00 – 12:00 Sustainability and the rail sector/Sustainability and the aviation sector
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 15:00 Sustainability and multimodality

Wednesday 12 July 2023
9:00 – 9:45 Keynote Digitalisation
9:45 – 10:00 Coffee break
10:00 – 12:00 Digitalisation and the rail sector/Digitalisation and the aviation sector
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 15:00 Digitalisation and multimodality

Thursday 13 July 2023
9:00 – 9:45 Keynote EU Framework
9:45 – 10:00 Coffee break
10:00 – 12:00 A Single European Transport Area
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 15:00 Workshop: How can the market approach be used for a Single European Transport Area?

Each of the four days of this residential course will follow a similar structure.

After a kick-off by a keynote speaker from European institutions and academia, participants will take part in parallel sessions dedicated to transversal issues in the railway and aviation sectors.
These interactive sessions will allow participants to deliver short presentations based on their research, day-to-day work, projects, or simply their professional experiences, and receive feedback from peers and qualified professionals and academics.
Each parallel session will feature 4-5 short presentations followed by feedback and open discussions.

Participants will then re-convene for broader afternoon sessions, during which the sessions’ moderators will reflect upon and synthesise the takeaways from the day.

At the end of the course, participants will receive a Certificate of Participation.

General fee: 2,500 EUR

Early bird discount for applications submitted before 31 March 2023: 1,500 EUR

Cancellation Policy

Paid registration fee is non-refundable. However, registrant substitution may be made up to 20 days before the start date of the course.