Marco Polo is an EU programme that supports the transfer of freight transportation by road to other forms of transport such as coastal shipping, railways or inland waterways. The total budget is approximately EUR 450 million for the period 2007-20013. In this way, the European Commission expects to be able to reduce road congestion, the environmental impact of road traffic and the number of traffic accidents. The target is, by 2010, to achieve the same distribution of freight transportation between the different forms of transport that applied in 1998, which requires the transfer of 20 billion tkm of freight transportation by road to other forms of transport per year.
Marco Polo II is based on the experience gained in the previous PACT Programme (1997-2001) and a continuation of the programme Marco Polo I, 2003-2006. VINNOVA is the national contact organisation and the Swedish representative on the programme’s advisory committee is Mr Bo Essle.
