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In the Interim Report White Paper published in 2006, the European Commission refers to the need to adopt a wider and more flexible range of instruments (p. 7) in order to achieve a sustainable transport policy within the Union. The principle of subsidiarity requires determining on what level, national or European, decisions may be taken, and, consequently, what instruments should be chosen. However, because of its ambiguity, this principle should be seen, at least in the areas of shared competences, as a basis for either limiting Community action in favor of the national, regional, or local level, or, conversely, for bolstering Community interventions. Whatever the case, however, the question of the compatibility of subsidiarity and sustainability needs to be raised. On the one hand, one may doubt of whether at the lower levels, actors and authorities are likely to take the global and long-term view necessary for the realization of a sustainable transport policy. On the other hand, it is not clear that the European Union is structured so as to be able to take decisions affecting the welfare of all citizens with sufficient impartiality.