Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo is planning to study and discuss the economic model of free public transport for all segments of the population by the summer of 2018, Les Echos reports.

According to the mayor, a final decision on the issue may be made by 2020.

"The issue of free transport is key in the field of urban travel, with cars that produce harmful emissions no longer occupying a central place," Hidalgo was quoted as saying.

Under pressure from the European Union to rein in air pollution, the German government said recently that it is considering a plan that would make public transportation free in its most polluted cities