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WORKSHOP ON THE FACILITATION OF MARITIME TRANSPORT AND PASSAGE THROUGH PORTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN |
On 9th, 10th and 11th October 2003 the second workshop forecasted under the framework of the REG-MED initiative took place in Tunisia. REG-MED is a thematic network under the Community Fifth Framework Programme RDT, co-ordinated by CETMO, with the fundamental aim of analysing and discussing in depth the issues that effect the facilitation of the transport of goods in the Mediterranean.
During the workshop in Tunisia – in which
around fifty experts participated – the aspects of the maritime transport
services that restrict the fluidity of international transport, the priorities
for the facilitation of passage through ports and the effect of the banking
practices on the facilitation of the transport of goods in the region were
examined. All information regarding the workshop is available via the Internet
from www.reg-med.net.
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INTERNATIONAL PANEL ON THE FIXED LINK THROUGH THE STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR |
On 3rd October 2003, an International panel
on the Fixed Link through the Strait of Gibraltar took place in Burdeos,
organised by the Association Bordeaux – Aquitaine – Morocco. CETMO reported
on “The transport relations in the Mediterranean: studies and forecasts”.
During the panel various reports highlighted the dynamic paper of GTMO
in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
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THE WORKING GROUPS OF THE EUROMEDITERRANEAN TRANSPORT FORUM |
The European Commission recently gathered in Brussels the working groups on “Air transport” (22nd September) and “Maritime transport, ports and short sea shipping” (20th October) which were established in the context of the Euromediteranean Transport Forum. CETMO participated in both meetings in its capacity as the GTMO Secretariat.
During the meetings, the European Commission presented to the Mediterranean Partner countries the principal advances carried out within the Community transport policy and possible scopes for regional co-operation were discussed, in particular concerning training and capacity building.
The Commission also reported during the
meetings on the work in progress within the Euromed Transport Project,
financed through the MEDA programme. The first result from this project
will be an exhaustive diagnostic on the transport sector in the Mediterranean,
a preliminary version of which is anticipated to be available in January
2004.
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THE UN-ECE WP5 WORKING GROUP MEETING |
The WP5 - UN-ECE working group on
transport trends and economy - met in Geneva on 24th to 26th September
2003. As usual, CETMO participated and presented the follow-up of its activities.
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MEETING OF THE GROUP OF EXPERTS FOR THE DESTIN PROJECT |
CETMO organised, on 8th and 9th September 2003, in Barcelona, the first meeting of the Group of Experts for the DESTIN project, Defining and Evaluating a Strategic Transport Infrastructure Network in the Western Mediterranean (www.destinweb.net).
The aim of this first meeting was to (i) explain the background and the content of the DESTIN project, (ii) present and validate a proposal for a reference network infrastructure to be used during the project in the three Maghreb countries, (iii) present and discuss the methodology of the models that will be used to forecast the international traffic of goods and passengers in said network, and (iv) set the data and information needed by the project.
The meeting was participated by the experts
designated by the Transport Ministries in the region and representatives
of the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the consortium
in charge of the DESTIN project.
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WORKSHOP ON THE EFFECT ON TRANSPORT OF CUSTOMS FORMALITIES AND BORDER CONTROLS OF GOODS |
On 7th and 8th July the first of the four workshops for the REG-MED initiative took place in Paris. REG-MED is a thematic network under the Community Fifth Framework Programme of R&D co-ordinated by CETMO, with the main objective of deepening the analysis and discussion on the issues that effect the facilitation of the transport of goods in the Mediterranean. The subject of analysis for this first workshop was the effect of customs formalities and border controls on the fluidity of transport in the Mediterranean.
In the workshop – hosted by the French Ministry of Transport – almost 40 people participated, including experts and representatives from private operators, public administrations, international organisations and universities. All the information regarding the workshop can be found via the Internet from www.reg-med.net.
The second REG-MED workshop will take place
in Tunis on 9th – 11th October. During said workshop the international
maritime transport services and the facilitation of passage through the
Mediterranean ports will be discussed.
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MEDA TEN-T: THIRD INITIATIVE ON TRANSPORT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN DRIVEN UNDER THE FIFTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME OF R&D |
MEDA TEN-T – “Mediterranean and Trans-European Networks for Transport” – officially started last March. This is the third initiative financed by the Fifth Framework Community Programme of R&D specifically directed at transport in the Mediterranean. The other two initiatives are the thematic network REG-MED and the DESTIN project, both co-ordinated by CETMO.
On 1st and 2nd July the first conference
for the MEDA TEN-T Framework took place in Brussels. All the members of
this initiative – among them was CETMO – participated in the conference,
jointly with representatives of national authorities from several Mediterranean
partner countries and from the EC/DGTREN. The conference served to introduce
the national transport system of the Mediterranean partner countries and
to discuss the selection of demonstration corridors to be used during the
project.
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ACTIVITIES OF THE EURO-MEDITERRANEAN TRANSPORT FORUM WORKING GROUPS |
The European Commission has recently restarted the activities of the Euro-Mediterranean Transport Forum working groups, holding two meetings in Brussels for the “Maritime safety“ and “Navigation systems by satellite” groups.
The group on “Maritime safety” met on 23rd June. During the meeting their firstly revised the actual situation of a number of maritime projects that were passed in 1997 for MEDA financing and the co-operation activities driven by the IMO. On this basis, they later discussed the work lines that should be included in the new project on regional co-operation that the European Commission proposes to carry out from 2004 for the Mediterranean.
The group on “Navigation systems by satellite”
met on 7th July to revise the latest developments regarding EGNOS and GALILEO
at EU level and to discuss the main guidelines of the future MEDA regional
project basis to promote these systems in the region as well as the terms
of reference for the future GALILEO Cooperation Office.
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INFORMAL MEETING OF EXPERTS FROM WP5 OF THE UN-ECE |
On 9th May 2003 CETMO participated, in
Geneva, in an informal meeting of experts from WP5, the working group on
the transport trends of the Inland Transport Committee of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe. During the meeting the subject of “The
relationship between transport and economic development” was discussed.
The meeting conclusions will serve as a basis for future works of the WP5.
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WORKING VISIT TO TUNISIA |
CETMO travelled to Tunisia, on 25th and
26th March 2003 with the aim of preparing the different seminars that will
take place during 2003 under the REG-MED initiative. REG-MED is a thematic
network co-ordinated by CETMO with the objective of analysing the obstacles
that hinder the international transport of goods in the Mediterranean and
to evaluate how the international agreements and conventions, and the convergence
to the Community regulatory framework can contribute to the reduction of
said obstacles. In this context, CETMO had several meetings with representatives
from the Tunisian Ministry of Transport and the Customs Directorate-General,
with the intention of involving said institutions in the initiative.
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SEMINAR ON MARITIME STATISTICS IN THE MAGHREB |
CETMO participated in the second and also
the last sub-regional seminar of the project on maritime statistics in
the Maghreb (Rabat, 3rd – 5th March 2003) carried out under the MEDSTAT
programme. The main objective of the seminar was to present and evaluate
the results obtained in the course of the eighteen months of the project.
The seminar also contributed to study the use of the maritime transport
statistics and the port performance indicators, to assess the possibilities
of exchanging statistics and to identify new sub-regional interests.
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INDENTIFICATION OF BOTTLENECKS IN THE
AIRPORT INFRASTRUCTURES
OF THE MAGHREB |
On 24th February 2003, CETMO organised a day in Barcelona to present to several Maghreb organisations, the exercise carried out on the forecast of bottlenecks in the airport infrastructures of said region. Representatives from the Moroccan ONDA (Office National des Aéroports) and the Tunisian Ministry of Transport and the OACA (Office de l’Aviation Civile et des Aéroports) attended the meeting.
The first part of the meeting was set aside to present the methodology adopted and to validate it with the results obtained for the situation of the infrastructure capacity in the year 2000. Subsequently, the meeting proceeded to contrast the coherence of the forecasted bottlenecks for the years 2005 and 2010 in accordance with the proposed methodology, with respect to those identified in the national planning of each country. The comparison between the forecast carried out by CETMO and the needs identified by each country resulted, in general terms, as satisfactory.
The meeting concluded by underlining the
interest of further analysis of the capacity of passenger terminals, given
that fact that this sub-system was forecasted to produce the principal
bottlenecks in the Maghreb airports, in the short and medium term
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UN-ECE INLAND TRANSPORT COMMITTEE MEETING |
The 65th Inland Transport Committee (ITC)
meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe took place,
in Geneva, on 18th-20th February 2003. During the meeting, CETMO presented
the outcome of its activities and work programme for 2003-2004. The ITC
supported the proposal by CETMO within the WP5, related to the organisation
of a seminar on the flow of goods and transport scenarios in the Mediterranean.
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The DESTIN kick-off meeting took place at the CETMO office, last 7th February 2003.
DESTIN (www.destinweb.net) is a R&D project under the Community 5th Framework programme with the objective of defining and evaluating a strategic transport infrastructure network in the Maghreb, conceived as an extension of the Trans-European Transport Network, in particular that of the European countries of the Western Mediterranean.
More specifically, DESTIN aims to:
- research on current and future multimodal transport chains and transport interoperability between the Maghreb countries and between each country in that region and EU and Mediterranean countries;
- to develop and apply specific computerised models to forecast international passenger and freight traffic in the Western Mediterranean, supported by an operational geographic information system and a sustainable database;
- based on the above outputs, to propose and apply methods and criteria to identify a strategic transport network in the Western Mediterranean and evaluate priorities for its development ; and
- to design an executive decision-support system to easily revise the identification of these priorities.
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The European Commission organised a meeting, on 24th January 2003, in Brussels, to study in depth and debate the concept of the motorways of the sea, such as established in the White Paper on European transport policy.
CETMO was invited by the Commission to
participate in the meeting, to reflect on the concept of motorways of the
sea in the context of an extension of the Trans-European Transport Network
to the Mediterranean Partner Countries.
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On 13th December 2002 in Brussels, the REG-MED kick-off meeting took place. REG-MED is the first initiative on transport in the Mediterranean approved under the 5th Framework Programme of the EU.
REG-MED is a thematic network co-ordinated
by CETMO with the following main objectives:
(i) Identify and analyse the obstacles
that hinder international transport in the Mediterranean; (ii) Seek and
propose solutions to minimise these obstacles and improve the flow of goods
between the countries of the region; (iii) Evaluate how the international
agreements and convergence with the Community regulatory framework can
contribute to reducing said obstacles.
The common analysis and discussion regarding these issues will be carried out through four workshops, during which, the main aspects of a complete chain of international transport of goods will be examined.
The first workshop will concentrate on examining the aspects of Customs and other border controls that influence the flow of international transport of goods in the Mediterranean. Special attention will be paid to the analysis of border formalities and the simplification of Customs procedures. The interest of establishing a connection between the Community transit systems and those of the Mediterranean Partner Countries as well as the TIR regime will also be examined.
The second workshop will discuss the most serious limitations that exist to the free provision of international maritime transport services in the Mediterranean. In particular, a discussion regarding the effect of incorrect competition between the Community fleet and that of the Mediterranean Partner Countries can have on the facilitation of transport in the region. The importance of insuring an adequate examination of the ships conformity with the established requirements of international agreements will also be analysed. A discussion will take place with regard to the fluidity in ports, the effect of the arrangements relative to the documentary credit, the declaration formalities applied to ships entering and leaving ports and the other procedures during stopovers. The consequences of limited or regulated access to port services will also be tackled.
During the third workshop, aspects of inland transport that obstruct the flow of door to door transport chains will be analysed, particularly between the two shores of the Mediterranean. The contribution of a greater liberalisation of international road transport and the harmonisation of its regulatory framework will be debated. A revision will also be made on the need for harmonisation to facilitate South-South railway transport in light of the experience of the EU. To conclude, an in-depth reflection will be made with regard to the facilitation of intermodal transport in the region, in particular regarding the role of the freight forwarders and integrators and the rules of responsibility.
Finally, the forth workshop will revise
how the application of information and communication technologies
can contribute to the efficient flow of goods in the Mediterranean. The
existing initiatives in the Mediterranean Partner Countries will be revised,
paying particular attention to the initiatives of Customs and port enclosures.
The legal issues that usually arise when certain technological solutions
are proposed will also be debated.
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On 10th October 2002, CETMO travelled to Lisbon with the aim of meeting with the representatives of the Portuguese organisations that regularly contribute to the update of the CETMO-INFRA database on transport infrastructure in the Western Mediterranean. The meeting was co-ordinated by the DGTT (Directorate General of Inland Transport) of the Portuguese Ministry of Transport, in his capacity as National Co-ordinator in CETMO. The meeting was represented by, among others, Instituto das Estradas de Portugal - IEP (the Portuguese Road Institute), Instituto Nacional do Transporte Ferroviário - INTF (the National Railway Transport Institute) and Instituto Marítimo e Portuário – IMP (the Maritime and Port Institute).
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