​Mrs Saima Kalev's opinion on clean power for transport, developing an infrastructure for the alternative fuel, was approved by an overwhelming majority at the CoR plenary. This proposal is of crucial importance for the EU as it represents an opportunity for implementing the EU2020 Resource-efficient Europe flagship initiative.  The opinion points out that an investment-friendly regulatory framework is badly needed to ensure such a long term investment policy to develop infrastructure for alternative fuels.

The full-scale deployment of clean fuels has been held back by three main barriers: the high cost of vehicles, a low level of consumer acceptance and the lack of infrastructure for recharging and refuelling.
The Commission is proposing action to ensure the necessary infrastructure build-up across Europe (minimum coverage requirement of recharging/refuelling points for electricity, hydrogen, and Liquefied natural gas) with common standards for interoperability.

Mrs Kalev welcomes the European Commission proposals but at the same time she expresses some reserves with respect to the short deadlines for transposing the directive into national legislations and the mandatory targets of recharging and refuelling points. When it comes to setting mandatory targets for recharging points for electric cars, the rapporteur stresses that differences between urban, rural and scarcely populated areas must be underlined and that Member States should be given enough flexibility in defining the number of recharging points.