BREXIT AND CUSTOMS: Post-Brexit customs arrangements will be part of ongoing negotiations over the terms of the U.K.’s departure from the EU. It’s a key question for truckers and port operators who warn that any new extensive control procedures are impractical and will pile on costs. At Dover, for example, some 10,000 trucks shuttle through on peak days and there’s little space between the iconic white cliffs and the Channel to build out space for checks or to park thousands of trucks waiting for clearance. If Britain leaves the EU without a deal, it will be ports like Dover that are most affected.

TRUCK EMISSIONS: The Commission is set to unveil its first legislation covering CO2 emissions standards for trucks and buses as part of the third wave of its mobility package proposals. Slated for March, the draft law will aim to spur producers to quicken the pace on a green push by setting the first binding EU standards for heavy vehicles. According to the Commission’s own statistics, emissions from heavy-duty vehicles rose 30 percent between 1990 and 2007, thanks to an ever-increasing number of trucks on the road. There’s pressure to act on heavy transport following earlier moves to set standards for passenger vehicles and vans.

POSTED TRUCKERS: This year’s legislative effort to reform the road transport sector goes to the heart of a trucking fight between Western and Central Europe. The Commission proposed a three-day window for how long drivers can spend in a foreign country before falling under local labor rules. Western Europeans, especially France, want to clamp down on foreign truckers, while Central Europeans say that amounts to protectionism. Also under consideration are draft laws on driver rest times and the amount of stops truckers can make in a country.

CONNECTED CARS: European Commission officials love connected cars, and this year will see efforts get rolling on early-stage apps covering things like hazardous weather warnings as well as potential new legislation on communications standards dictating how cars talk with each other and with road infrastructure. That comes after an expansive working group convened by the Commission and dubbed GEAR 2030 compiled its final report in the autumn calling for work to be done to make sure the automated revolution is coordinated across the EU.

RAIL BEHEMOTH: The Commission will be taking a close look at Alstom’s mega-merger with Siemens’ mobility unit. The proposed Franco-German European rail giant is aimed at competing with fast-growing Chinese trainmaker CRRC. But a final merger approval from Brussels will hinge on whether Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s team agrees that the fight for contracts to build metro carriages, high-speed trains and signaling systems is global and not just European. Alternatively it may decide that the new company will gobble up all the business available in Europe, restricting competition. Alstom-Siemens wants to close the deal by the end of the year.

SHIPPING EMISSIONS: Countries are expected to agree on a draft strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector by April. The final text won’t be published until 2023, but the effort through the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization is important because the EU is pushing for ambitious reduction targets. Some countries (think Russia, Brazil and China) are keen on a slow-as-she-goes approach. Both shipping and aviation were left out of the Paris climate accord signed in 2015. Countries have already agreed on their own aviation emissions-slashing deal through the International Civil Aviation Organization, and attention has since turned to the seas.

This article is part of the spring policy primer.