SEETAC event at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium
SEETAC meeting with Members of European Parliament and
European Commission
On 28th June, for the second time, 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 event gave the
opportunity to understand the methodology for the Ten-T core
network definition and highlighted the technical inputs of the
SEETAC project in this complex process.
The meeting was opened by Hon. Mr. Cancian that underlined to
which extent the extension of the EU Core Network to the Western
Balkans represents an important aspect of the current Ten-T
revision process. In general, continued the Parliamentarian, only
by focusing on concrete projects and programmes through
coordination and sharing of the mutually-beneficial strategies,
regional integration can increase in a European perspective. In
this context the SEETAC project and the Central European Initiative
could be considered a facilitator between the EU and non-EU member
States.
Mr. Fortuna, from the Lead Partner's side, briefly explained the
rationale of the SEETAC project and its relevance for connecting
the Western Balkans to the EU transport system. He then wrapped up
the outcomes so far achieved by the project: the data base
collection and the modeling exercises.
Mr. Spiegel, Head of Department for International Networks and
General Transport Planning of the Austrian Ministry of transport,
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 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.
Mr. Bajrambasic, SEETO Steering Committee Member and Assistant
Minister of Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina commented that the
Western Balkans future is inextricably linked to the EU. He
pointed out the importance of SEETO's work that traced back its
roots to the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2004, not only
regarding its technical dimension but also its political support as
the precondition for regional cooperation. He then mentioned some
important bilateral and trilateral agreements concluded by Bosnia
and Herzegovina within the context of SEETO.
Ms. Katarina Cop Bajde, Chair-Lady of SEETO and Head of the
Directorate of Strategic Infrastructure Objects from
the Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and
Infrastructure, singled out the specific case of Croatia that
resumed its EU accession chapters negotiation and will become a
full-fledged member by July 2013. In this context, connecting the
country with its EU neighboring countries (Italy, Slovenia and
Hungary) represents a priority. However, as Croatia will find
itself at the border of the EU also connections with the Western
Balkans will be extremely important. She also stressed the
importance of spending wisely EU funds for infrastructure
development and in this respect Croatia could represent a good
example.
On the same line Ms. Angelina Zivkovic - SEETO Steering
Committee member and Head of Department for European integration
and international cooperation of the Ministry of transport and
maritime affairs of Montenegro, expressed the importance for the
country to be connected to the whole region and to the EU and
underlined the necessity to take into consideration the feedbacks
coming form SEETO as well as from the Western Balkan countries in
the planning of the future EU core network.
Mr. Baron, Deputy Head of Unit of the DG MOVE, brought to the
audience the point of view of the European Commission. The Western
Balkan countries are already included in the EU Comprehensive
Network, however it would be important that also the EU Core
Network is extended to this area in order to create transport
continuity and avoid creating black spots in the European area. The
EC is planning the main transport axis for the next 20 years and
the Western Balkan countries sooner or later will become EU members
so their importance is strategic, since they are a way of transit
for reaching the Black Sea and Turkey. He added that a political
input in this sense would be important. Moreover, in the
co-decision process that will bring to the final definition of the
Ten-t, both the European Parliament and the Council will have the
opportunity to ask the Commission to include also in the Core
Network the WB. The EC is sensitive to this argument and a step
from the EP coupled with the commitment of both non-EU and EU
border countries could lead to a successful guidelines
implementation.
Also Mr. Adelsberger, administrator at the European Commission,
drew the attention to the necessity to fully integrate the what
would be the "Western Balkan Core Network" and the EU Core Network,
not just linking two separate systems but creating a synergic and
coherent one European Core Network.
Mr. Fortuna concluded 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.