EURO-MEDITERRANEAN COOPERATION
Current situation:
The EuroMed Transport Project (MEDA II Programme) was created during the second Forum meeting and launched in the first quarter of 2003. The aim of the four-year project is to help reform the legislative and regulatory frameworks of Mediterranean partner countries' transport industries, and to define and promote a regional network of transport infrastructure that will develop south-south connections and eventually become a continuation of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
During the EuroMed Transport Forum in December 2004, the European Commission proposed that a Blue Paper on Euro-Mediterranean Transport Policy be drafted (2005) to recommend policies to improve the operations of the transport system in the region, in keeping with the main findings of the EuroMed Transport Project.
In 2004, the European Commission also decided to create the High Level Group to analyse the extension of the major trans-European transport corridors into neighbouring countries and regions. The recommendations on this matter are included in the High Level Group II Loyola de Palacio Report.
The Marrakech Conference of Transport Ministers of the EU and third-party Mediterranean countries (November 2005) was held to weigh existing cooperation on transport in the Mediterranean and give renewed impetus to the issue. The Transport Ministers' conclusions contained their recommendations for future courses of action and their support for the guidelines of the Blue Paper.
