SEETAC in 2011, what’s beyond facts and figures?
Another busy year is now almost behind us and the moment has
come to sum up some of the most important achievements reached in
this year. The whole partnership worked hard on both political and
technical aspects for the benefit of the entire project and many
unexpected activities very carried out, that surprisingly enriched
our project results.
First of all, a lot of efforts were made to draw the attention
of the European Commission to the SEETAC activities and progress
and finally the project found its path towards the European policy
makers. Initial contacts and meetings in Brussels with the EC were
soon transformed in operational and fruitful cooperation that
resulted in concrete benefits for the entire partnership.
As a matter of fact, the project partners cooperated closely
with the DG Move and the Transport and Tourism Committee of the
European Parliament in view of possible contribution to the
TEN-T revision process. In this sense the project presented a
proposal for the inclusion of the Western Balkans in the TEN-T core
network.
What is more the project was also presented at the European
Parliament, where the interest shown for the projects' progress was
rather consistent. This 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.
In this field, it is important to add that the cooperation with
DG Move became rather constant and their representatives attended
SEETAC Project meetings, contributed to the organisation and
planning of activities, as well provided precious advice for
transforming project results into a real success!
Substantial progress was therefore made in the data collection
that turned out to be more detailed than it was foreseen and
therefore it will not only bring benefits to the participating
countries, but can be a real source of information for the whole
South East European area in terms of transport flows and their
development.
It is obvious that the whole partnership can show interest for
the project and for its progresses. However, many "outsiders" have
contacted the SEETAC staff to gain information or to invite the
partners to their events in order to present the project. Among
various, SEETAC was presented at the Joint Transnational Conference
held in Katowice, Poland last September. This occasion, as well as
the Trincon conference in Sarajevo and the TEN-T days in Antwerp
gave us the opportunity to create synergies and disseminate our
outcomes. What is more, several journals contacted us to obtain
information to be published on their pages. All this gave further
boost to our engines and willingness to do as much as possible for
the whole project.
Therefore, plans are being made for the forthcoming years in
terms of meetings, events and possible synergies. So far it has
been decided that a project meeting will take place in January in
Belgrade and in spring the next Ministerial conference together
with a Donor conference for the presentation of possible pilot
projects are going to be organised by the Greek partners. For this
important joint event the whole partnership will work closely
together, in order to involve the European Commission, financial
institutions and regional actors.
Finally, our SEETAC staff wishes everyone a fruitful and
successful new year and invites you to keep an eye on our work and
provide us with your advice and support at mutual benefit.