| |
EU-Western Balkans summit held in Sofia
SOFIA (Bulgaria), May 17 - The EU-Western Balkans summit took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 17 May. It brought together heads of state or government from EU member states and leaders from the 6 Western Balkans partners: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo.
EU leaders agreed on the Sofia declaration, with which the Western Balkans partners have aligned themselves. They also adopted the Sofia priority agenda, as an annex to the declaration, outlining new measures for enhanced cooperation with the region.
At the summit EU leaders reaffirmed their unequivocal support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans. The EU is determined to strengthen its support to the region's political, economic, and social transformation. |
|
| |
14th June - 54th SEETO Steering Committee Meeting held in Budva
BUDVA (Montenegro), June 14 - On 14th of June, at Hotel Avala in Budva the 54th Steering Committee Meeting was held. The meeting began with a welcome and opening remarks from SEETO Steering Committee Chairman, Mr. Gjynejt Mustafa, Mr. Alain Baron, Co-Chairman of SEETO Steering Committee from European Commission and SEETO Secretariat General Manager, Mr. Dejan Lasica. SEETO Steering Committee members from the regional participants, as well as the SEETO Secretariat participated in the meeting.
SEETO Secretariat briefed the members of the SC on some important issues under the Connectivity Reform Measures plan, presenting the state of play in each Regional Participant as well as the latest progress on Connecta projects on road safety, road/rail maintenance, ITS and border crossing as well as administrative issues.
Steering Committee adopted different administrative steps for the forthcoming period, including SEETO Regional Participants agreement in principle to extend the SEETO mandate, until the end of the year 2018, in order to enable a sound support to the regional transport cooperation without interruption until the structures of the TCT are fully functional.
Some of the forthcoming activities agreed by the SC included preparation of the SEETO Multiannual Plan (MAP) 2018 - Update and further monitoring of the connectivity reform measures, Connecta Technical Assistance. |
|
| | | Vinci to officially take over Serbia's Belgrade airport in September
BELGRADE (Serbia), June 25 – France's Vinci Airports is expected to officially take over the operation of Serbia’s Belgrade Airport Nikola Tesla in September, infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said. "The concession does not just mean a one-off fee to be paid by the concessionaire, above all it is an investment in the next five to six years which will enable the further development of the airport," Mihajlovic said in a statement.
Serbia's government signed a 25-year concession agreement for the operation of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport with Vinci Airports in March. Last week, Serbia’s competition authority said it approved the contract.
|
|
| | Construction of Peljesac bridge in Croatia to begin mid-July
ZAGREB (Croatia), June 25 - The construction of the Peljesac bridge is expected to begin in the middle of July, Croatia's transport minister Oleg Butkovic said.
"A contract has been signed and funds have been secured, this is the first phase. The second phase is access roads. The value of the works of this phase is 450 million kuna ($71.1 million/60.8 million euro) and Hrvatske Ceste are currently reviewing the bids received in the tender for these works," Butkovic said in a radio show aired by public broadcaster HRT.
|
|
| | EBRD to invest in Montenegrin airports
PODGORICA (Montenegro), June 19 - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to invest in the development of Montenegro's Tivat and Podgorica airports and in the country's agriculture sector, the lender's vice president Alain Pilloux said.
"We will support the development of the Tivat and Podgorica airports, as well as, of course, the development of road infrastructure including the construction of a motorway to Serbia, as well as the Adriatic-Ionian corridor that will connect Croatia, Montenegro and Albania," Pilloux said in a video file posted on the website of Montenegro's public broadcaster RTCG.
|
|
| | Formal opening of upgraded Tabanovce border-crossing TABANOVCE (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), May 30 – A formal ceremony was organized for setting the upgraded border crossing Tabanovce into work, with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev saying that the reconstruction project “is bringing Europe to Macedonia.”
The European Union supported the EUR 1,7 million-project, dubbed “Extension and upgrading the Customs clearance and inspection facilities on the road Border Crossing Tabanovce” with EUR 1.3 million under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). The rest of the funds were provided by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s government.
The new customs terminal will facilitate the cross-border trade along the Corridor 10 – the most important international route passing through the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, EU Ambassador Samuel Zbogar said.
|
|
| | ITF – Transport Ministers sign Declaration on Transport Safety and Security LEIPZIG (Germany), 24 May - Ministers with responsibility for transport from the 59 member countries of the International Transport Forum have underlined the critical importance of keeping transport safe, secure and resilient in order to enable societies and economies to prosper.
“Safety and security are of fundamental concern for transport, both as the basis of a citizen’s right to travel without fear, and as a condition for the reliable and efficient transport of goods”, Ministers state in a joint declaration agreed unanimously at their Annual Summit on 24 May in Leipzig, Germany.
|
|
|
| | State takes over Niš Airport
NIS (Serbia), June 26 - The local assembly in Niš has approved the contentious issue of transferring ownership of the airport to the state government. Following weeks of street protests, a total of 44 assembly members voted in favour of the motion, four were against and one abstained.
Critics believe the change in management is linked to the recent takeover of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport by France's VINCI and that Niš's passenger growth will be capped as a result.
|
|
| | Serbia and Iran sign agreement on direct flights
BELGRADE (Serbia), June 21 - Serbia and Iran signed a framework agreement on air traffic which renews direct flights between the two countries after a break of 27 years, the Serbian government said.
The agreement was signed by Serbian Construction, Traffic and Infrastructure Minister Zorana Mihajlovic and Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari during the 15th session of the Mixed Serbia-Iran Trade Commission.
|
|
| | Construction works on Albania’s Tirana-Dibra highway resuming
TIRANA (Albania), June 13 – The construction works on the remaining part of a highway linking Albania’s capital Tirana to Dibra region and neighbouring Macedonia will start next week, prime minister Edi Rama said.
The project is part of a 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) government programme for the development of road infrastructure and for investments in healthcare and education in the next few years under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.
Gjoka Konstruksion is expected to complete the construction of the 40 km section of the 61.7 km highway in four years, according to local media reports.
|
|
| | EIB lending 80 mln euro for construction of a 30 km highway in Kosovo PRISTINA (Kosovo), May 29 – The European Investment Bank (EIB) said it is providing a loan of up to 80 million euro ($93.3 million) to co-finance the construction of a 30 km highway section in Kosovo.
“This project is part of the South-East Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO) Route 6b, linking the Kosovo capital Pristina to the border with Montenegro,” the EIB said in a statement, following the signing of the loan agreement between EIB vice-president Dario Scannapieco and Kosovo finance minister Bedri Hamza in Luxembourg.
The construction of the highway will be also financed by a 3.2 million euro grant funding from the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) for project preparation.
|
|
| | Eurowings starts direct flights from Dusseldorf to Mostar
SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), May 16 – The first direct flight of German low-cost air carrier Eurowings from Dusseldorf to Bosnia's Mostar took place on Wednesday, the government of Bosnia's Herzegovina-Neretva Canton said.
The government of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton said in a statement it will provide 500,000 marka ($312,900/255,650 euro) in subsidies to the airline this year, after allocating 300,000 marka for this purpose in last year’s budget. The subsidies are intended to finance the costs associated with the establishment of direct flights by Eurowings from Mostar.
|
|
|
| | |
European Road conference to be held on 22-24 October
Organized by key representative organizations of the roads & mobility sector, the European Road Conference "Corridors for Shared Prosperity & Sustainable Mobility" is an essential platform to deepen the understanding of regional mobility challenges, and achieve consensus on key policy, investment and planning measures. It will be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia on 22-24 October.
|
|
Dear readers,
In order to keep you updated with the latest changes and developments, SEETO Secretariat is focused on continues improvement by offering the best quality reports, information, analyses as well as a variety of regional, EU and world news through our communication channels.
SEETO Secretariat would like to encourage and promote the work of all those who are interested to publish topics, articles, analyses related to the Transport and Infrastructure field or any other field that might have an impact on Transport Infrastructure
SEETO Secretariat does not take credit or responsibility for articles taken from other news media sources. |
|
|
|
