Interview with EPF Manageboard Chairman Schneider
Dear Josef. As the chairman of EPF, could you give us a short description of the organisation?
EPF is a non-profit organisation which unites all major passenger associations in Europe. We would like to accomplish cooperation between all our member associations. This way they can learn from one another and pass on good examples of passenger friendly and efficient public transportation from all over Europe. Besides facilitating this cooperation, our main goal is to represent passengers in a professional manner in the European institutions. It is of vital importance to make the voice of the passenger as loud as possible in Europe.
Why is that so important?
Throughout the ages Europe has been characterised as a continent where different people have learned much from one another. Mobility is the main condition to enable exchange between European citizens. This is the reason why it is highly important to have sufficient possibilities to travel across borders. Especially now, since regular public transportation is under pressure because of a lack of investments and because of the safety issues in Europe. As a passenger association we would like to ensure that citizens are key to the mobility policy and legislation in Europe.
How do you connect with these citizens?
This is mostly ensured by our national member associations, but once a year we organise a European conference which aims to strengthen the bonds between passengers, policy makers and the transportation sector. This conference is hosted by a different European country every year, and this year the Netherlands has the honour to host this event in Rotterdam. Rover, our Dutch representatives are helping us tremendously with this.
What can we expect from this conference?
First and foremost it will be an interesting day with many possibilities to expand your network. The headliner on Saturday March 18th is a debate where the transportation sector and policy makers and European passenger representatives are facing each other. They will discuss their views on mobility to the European citizens. Friday afternoon there will be a workshop which mainly targets our members. During this workshop some members will give examples of successful policy influencing within their operation. Also, we will try to encourage the discussion and exchange about effective lobbying. Of course this is not only interesting for our members but for everyone who would like to influence policy. The full programme, which has ‘Connectivity’ as a main theme, can be found here. It is open for everyone and we are convinced that the programme is attractive for a large audience.