Strengthening Transport Networks in South East Europe: The Way Ahead for European Integration SEETAC meeting with Members of European Parliament
European Commission and relevant stakeholders
On 9th December 2010 the SEETAC Project was
successfully presented at the European Parliament in Brussels
during an event co-organised by the Central European Initiative
(CEI) and hosted by Hon. Antonio Cancian (Transport and Tourism
Committee of the European Parliament).
The general objective of the meeting was to discuss the
challenges of Western Balkans on their path towards integration
into the EU Transport Networks, by analyzing the current EU
transport revision process and instruments, as well as the role of
the SEETAC project. In particular, the event gave the opportunity
to SEETAC partners to meet Members of European Parliament, EC
officials, and other relevant stakeholders (i.e. national and
regional Representatives to the EU, Transport Associations and
Transport Lobbies), directly involved in TEN-T (Trans European
Transport Network) revision and in the EU enlargement process.
In this context, Mr. Carlo Fortuna, SEETAC Content Manager,
underlined the importance of analyzing the Western Balkan
transport system in a broader context and fully integrated into the
Shout East European region, as a whole.
The event, chaired by Mr. Carlo Fortuna, was attended by several
Members of the European Parliament among which: Hon. Cancian
(Italy), Hon. Kukan (Slovak Republic), Hon. Marinescu (Romania),
and Hon. Ranner (Austria), European Commission officials from DG
Mobility and Transport and DG Enlargement, the Joint Technical
Secretariat of the South East Europe Programme, the South-East
Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO), officials from national and
regional representations to the EU and numerous transport
associations and lobbies.
The meeting was opened by Hon. Kukan (Member of the EP as well
as Chair of the EU-Western Balkans delegation), that
expressed his satisfaction with the work of the SEETAC project and
highlighted the importance of a fully fledged integration of the
Western Balkans in the EU transport system. On the same line, Hon.
Ranner pointed out the importance of building up a transport
strategy for the Western Balkans by taking into account the
cross-border dimension. According to the Austrian Parliamentarian,
economic activity, sustainable growth and transport development
should go hand in hand with the cross-border-dimension which will
eventually lead to a deeper regional integration. Cross-border
means, in transport terms, interoperability and inter-modality and
in this regard, transport projects should establish "bridges"
between the 'old Europe', the 'new Europe' and the future Member
Countries.
CEI Secretary General, Amb. Pfanzelter, briefly introduced the
activities of the CEI and emphasized its strategic objective to
help non-EU Member States to get closer to the European Union. In
this context, the SEETAC project represents a flagship initiative,
because not only it is in the line with this objective, but it also
witnesses the ability of the CEI to be a reliable partner of the
EU, able to manage and implement EU funds and policies.
Mr. Ivan Curzolo, Head of the Project Management and Development
Unit at the Joint Technical Secretariat of the South East Europe
Programme, expressed the Secretariat's satisfaction for the
positive outcomes of the SEETAC project until now, and affirmed
that it represents an important achievement of the SEE
Programme.
Hon. Cancian wrapped up on the contributions of the panelists of
the first session by highlighting the importance of the transport
sector for the Western Balkans, and he also expressed the necessity
to create an Adriatic system in the region. He explained that, as
the river Danube has inspired the creation of a macro-region for
the riverain countries and beyond, so should the Adriatic
Sea. The EU has already come up with the Baltic Sea Strategy,
adopted the Black Sea Synergy and is currently shaping the Danube
Strategy, whereas the Adriatic macro-region is the natural
continuation of these systems.
In a broader context, he emphasized the importance of attracting
new flows of tourists and freight coming from the emerging market
in order to catch up with the globalization trend. He also stressed
the need for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the
implementation of future transport projects, since neither national
nor EU budgets are enough, especially in times of budgetary
constraints. Furthermore, the MEP said that the PPPs represent the
conjunction between the political/strategic and the
operational/technical dimensions of future projects and concluded
by expressing his willingness to further cooperate with the SEETAC
project.
During the second session the participants assisted to the
presentations of Mr. Rubini (CEI Expert) and Mr. Santori, expert
from the European Academy of Bolzano as a project partner, that
presented the developments of the project on data collection, the
methodology for data gathering and interpretation, and the
construction of the transport model. Following this, the European
Commission officials took the floor. Mr. Baron, Policy Officer and
Mr. Adelsberger, Expert, explained the current status of the
TEN-T revision and its extension to the Western Balkans.
Mr. Baron stated that the European Commission fully supports
SEETAC in its attempt to contribute to the integration between the
TEN-T network and the network of South East Europe in the light of
the current debate on priority transport projects in the
region.
He then briefed on the forthcoming changes in the EU transport
policy that will indirectly affect the Western Balkans. In
particular, the new White Paper (new guidelines for the TEN-T),
will set out the long term vision of the Commission regarding
transport and mobility for resource efficient Europe as the EU 2020
Strategy requires. According to the EC official it is important to
speak more about transport system rather than infrastructure, as
transport system includes other transport correlated aspects such
as standards, regulatory issues, strategy, safety and
security. He explained that the EC is currently engaged in the
selection of the core network on the basis of the comprehensive
network that will apply only for the EU Member States (MS), however
possible links to non-EU MS will also be taken into
considerations.
In this regard, although the European Commission is applying a
different methodology regarding the TEN-T extension to the EU
candidates and potential candidate countries, a certain discipline
is required in these countries to outline a similar methodology for
the definition of a core network with the perspective that they may
be linked to the TEN-T network in the future.
This implies that the quality of data collection and financial
information are under exercise and SEETAC will be an contribution
in this respect.
When speaking about the situation in the Western Balkans, he
stressed the fact that, due to the network fragmentation,
cooperation and coordination of different entities in
efficient planning are extremely important for the
improvement of the transport system and that the cross-border
congestion represents an important issue.
Mr. Fortuna affirmed that indeed mobility goes beyond technical
aspects and infrastructure. It includes organizational issues,
meeting overall transport demand and seasonal traffic peaks,
spatial panning , innovations, etc. An appropriate transport system
has to take into account all these issues, promoting
multi-modality, while also considering environmental protection,
economic growth and social development.
He also stressed that the SEETAC project is engaged in a
delicate exercise of prioritizing SEE projects by promoting good
governance and coordination between the different players in the
region. Finally, he argued that the current revision should not
only take into account the current flows of tourists and freight,
but also the perspective flows to be able to have a holistic
approach.
Mr. Adelsberger also touched upon the ongoing discussion for the
TEN-T revision, and he explained that the future core network will
be made up of nodes and links that will connect the entire
territory of the European Union. The nodes will be the capitals of
the EU Member States and other relevant locations (i.e. airports,
sea ports and big cities) and the links will be indentified by
reaching an optimum between direct connection and using existing
infrastructure. He also highlighted the importance to have a
supplementary infrastructure system based on new technologies.
Hon. Marinescu, Romanian MEP, brought up the importance of the
EU integration of the WB countries regarding transport as one of
the major features for economic recovering.
Then, Ms. Gianfranchi, Policy Officer from DG Enlargement,
explained the rationale of the Instrument for the Pre-Accession
(IPA) for candidate and potential candidate countries in the
financing transport projects. She also illustrated the main
features of the Western Balkan Investment Framework (WBIF),
pointing out the importance of candidate countries ownership and
the involvement of the private sector. She stressed that the
investment volume for the Transport sector envisaged is around 3.2
billions, with only 1.4 billion secured loans so far, coming from
different financial institutions and 32 millions of grants approved
and the remaining volume of more than 50% should come from the
national budget. However in the wake of the economic crisis it is
not certain that the nation budgets will secure such volume of
funding, therefore it is of utmost importance to prioritize between
different projects and of the involvement of the private
sector.
SEETO acting General Manager, Mr. Nenad Nikolic gave a
presentation on the SEETO Multi Annual Plan (MAP) 2011, that
represents a regional transport planning document jointly agreed
upon by all Regional Participants, that serves as a platform for
the most efficient use of funds for the development of the Core
Regional Transport Network and helps to streamline the transport
reforms. He explained the role of regional cooperation and the
results of SEETO's 6th Annual Meeting of Ministers on
the Development of the South East Europe Core Regional Transport
Network, held in Sarajevo on 1st December 2010.
Moreover, in his presentation, Mr. Nikolic illustrated future
development plans and regional soft/horizontal measures which
should give an added value to infrastructure projects and he also
stressed the necessity to participate in European and regional
initiatives which will define Core Trans European Network (TEN-T).
On the same line, Ms. Katarina Cop Bajde, Chair-Lady of SEETO as
well as Head of the Directorate of Strategic Infrastructure Objects
from the Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and
Infrastructure, stressed out the good result achieved by SEETO and
the importance of regional cooperation in the transport sector.
In his final remarks, Mr. Fortuna affirmed that improved
financial information is required to ensure correct prioritization
and grant allocation. He then referred to the importance of
fostering good, inter-linked and sustainable transport systems for
the region, and the necessity for a coordination and use of
appropriate technical, eco-sustainable solutions, that will
increase the attractiveness of the region paving the way to the
regional sustainable development and mobility.
He closed the conference expressing his willingness to continue
the fruitful cooperation with the European Commission, as well as
with the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European
Parliament. The panelists, as well as the participants expressed
their satisfaction for the very encouraging results of the
conference.