SEETAC’S First Ministerial Conference held in Bucharest, Romania
The first SEETAC Ministerial Conference took place on 3rd
February 2010 in Bucharest.
This was the first public event gathering high political
representatives and their respective Directors of the Ministry of
Transports from the countries of the SEETAC
partnership[1].
Mr. Alexandru Cucu, Director of the Romanian Ministry of
Transport and Infrastructure opened the meeting stressing the
importance of the SEETAC project at both national and transnational
level.
During the meeting large space was given to the presentation of
the state of art in the Transport sector in order to share
information and build up a common background.
Austria stressed the importance of the SEETAC project in the
challenge for sustainable accessibility by promoting less
"carbonised" modes and as an input to the TEN-T revision
process.
The Slovakian Ministry of Post, Telecommunications and Transport
explained how SEETAC support the inclusion of a part of TEN-T
network into the "TEN-T core network", with the North -South
connection through Slovakia (Baltic -Adriatic corridor and Baltic
-Black sea connection) and the West -East connection: Germany
-Czech Republic -Slovak Republic -Ukraine.
Moreover, SEETAC should support the improvement of land
transport as an important alternative in the context of European
and Asian trade, connections from the ports in the Baltic, Black
and Adriatic Sea to the hinterland, creating conditions for
regional economic development and a better coordination of
infrastructure construction among relevant countries.
The Greek Ministry of Transport and Telecommunication
illustrated their national priorities in the transport sector as
the completion of the major national transport network, improvement
of accessibility, complementarity of transport modes, combined
transport, provision of improved connections and transport
operations with the neighbouring countries. Serbia presented the
objectives to be reached by 2025, among which a well organized
system of navigable inland waterways with improved infrastructure
and optimized investments in the sphere of private and public
sector, a developed system of ports and intermodal nodes, high
-quality intermodal transport chains and ports of industrial
companies along the navigable waterways and a developed nautical
tourism.
Croatia talked about the Paneuropean corridors' current state of
art and plans for the future. By 2015 the whole length of the
Corridor X motorway should be completed, and the railway is under
reconstruction. By 2020 Croatia intends to complete the northern
section of the corridor V branch Vc and the same it is applied to
the railway. Regarding the Corridor VII the navigability of the
Sava river should be upgraded to level IV and the reconstruction of
the Vukovar Port is ongoing.
Also the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia offered an
overview of the state of arts of infrastructure and corridors.
After the conclusions made by Mr. Cucu and the Central
European Initiative Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mykola
Melenevski, a press conference was held.
Other three conferences are foreseen during the project
implementation that will last until March 2012.
The next one, as announced during the Conference by Edmond
Haxhinasto, the Albanian Vice Minister of Public Works and
Transport, will be held in Tirana towards the end of the year.
[1] Albania, Austria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Republic of
Serbia, and Slovak Republic (Observer).