Jean-Bernard Kovarik of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy opened the meeting by saying that the goal of the symposium was to cooperate across the Atlantic and exchange information on transportation and mobility. Cooperation between the United States and the European Union is necessary to optimize public funding of transportation research and to provide quality research outcomes via fast implementation of transportation services, which is how the outcomes are measured. Transportation is facing challenging issues, such as balancing demand and land planning. Other challenges include energy efficiency, reliability in mass transit, climate change, safety, security, and the social acceptability of new technologies in our connected world. Given these common challenges, cooperation across the Atlantic could be beneficial. Kovarik congratulated the planning committee for its organization of the symposium and its cross analysis of tangible examples through the white papers commissioned. Innovation is important for human jobs and progress in transport as well as other sectors, he said. He concluded his remarks by saying that "humans are the ultimate target of the economic advancement" and that he looked forward to a fruitful meeting.
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