The ACROSSEE project aims at establishing a large and coherent platform that will contribute to rationalising and optimising the existing transport network in South-East Europe (SEE). Financed under the South-East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme, the project is promoted by the CEI as Lead Partner, in cooperation with 24 partner institutions, such as Ministries of Transport, Regional Administration, National Transport Operators and European Associations, Universities and Research Institutions in 13 countries in the region.
The first project and steering committee meeting, held in Vienna on 4-5 April 2013 and hosted by the project partner AustriaTech, was attended by about 50 representatives from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
Mr. Franc Žepič, from the Slovene Ministry of infrastructure and spatial planning, and coordinator of the Rail-Road-Air Priority of the Danube Strategy, underlined the importance of the ACROSSEE project for the Western Balkans since it tackles one of the most important problems regarding cross-border - bottlenecks between EU and non-EU Member States.
In this regard, the project will propose concrete measures to increase the accessibility and the mobility throughout the whole region. The working group of the Danube strategy is looking forward to receiving the deliverables of the project in order to capitalise its results.
During the meeting, the participants exchanged views on the state-of-the-art of the project activities and discussed the institutional and stakeholders cooperation in order to provide concrete actions to the macro-regional strategy, such as Danube strategy, the Western Balkan integration and South East Europe. Particular attention was paid to the methodological approach to be used for the execution of the surveys on South East Europe traffic flows, the demand analysis and the data collection. Additional information was given on the data management centre. Discussions were held on the methodological approach of the cross-border analysis which will tackle border crossing bottlenecks and facilitate trans-national flows.
A session of the meeting was devoted to financial and administrative issues presented by the CEI as lead partner. Further information was given on the upcoming events, such as the workshop at the European Parliament and the Ministerial Conference to be organised in November 2013 in Trieste.
For information:
Ms. Anna Marconato, Project Manager
Mr. Carlo Fortuna, Technical Coordinator
euprojects@cei.int
