European Mobility Week on OEaB

European Mobility Week is an important European event, the flagship of the European Commission's campaign to raise awareness of sustainable urban mobility. It promotes behavioural change in favour of active mobility, public transport and other clean, smart transport solutions. The main event takes place every year, this year from 16 to 22 September 2025 and culminates in the popular Car Free Day. Local authorities should use the main week to test innovative planning measures, promote new infrastructure and technologies, measure air quality and gather feedback from the public. More cities are joining each year and, thanks to its huge media appeal, the campaign is widely recognised as a driving force towards sustainable urban mobility in Europe and beyond.

Our department also actively participated in this event and, based on the request of the Ministry of the Environment, we participated in the Youth for Equality festival in Trnava (17-18. 9. 2025). As part of the two-day festival, the YFE organization prepared several events aimed at supporting sustainable transport and a healthier environment, including improving air quality. We prepared a lecture-discussion afternoon in English with the participation of foreign volunteers on this topic.

As a basis, we offered four possible presentation topics, and finally we focused on the overall emission situation and air quality in Slovakia, where after a short introduction, basic information about the ongoing LIFE IP project - Improving Air Quality was provided by Júlia Čaplová, project manager (Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic). Subsequently, Dr. Ján Horváth focused on emissions from transport and a comparison of individual modes of transport.

The meeting was interactive and the audience asked very interesting questions related to heating in households, air quality in Slovakia, the role of industry and, of course, possibilities for improving the transport situation towards its sustainability in cities.

At the end of the week, we also gave a short interview for STVR – the international broadcast about Slovakia abroad – in which we focused on the issue of road transport emissions and its future. We talked about the work of our department, the share of transport in Slovakia’s total emissions and its development, the main sources of pollution, and which substances pose the greatest health risks in urban areas. We also discussed options for reducing transport-related emissions – from limiting individual car use, through the use of biofuels and electrification, to the potential of fast rail connections between major cities – and highlighted the importance of transport in meeting Slovakia’s climate targets within the EU. The key message was that transport has a crucial impact on air quality in cities, and its sustainable transformation is essential.