Railway PRO

36
POLICIES & STRATEGIES
> frastructure Needs Assessment (2020)”
supported by EIB and BDCP will answer
this question, since among others it should
give exact figures also on financial needs for
upgrading, construction of missing links and
removal of bottlenecks on crucial sections in
the rail network of the Danube region. At
the moment I can only say that most of the
costs of the projects identified by PA1b are
coming from railway sector.
Railway PRO: Do you organize meetings
with interested stakeholder? What was the
last one?
Franc Žepič: On annual basis the stakeholders
conference “The Danube Region
Transport Days” is organised. Third one
is planned in the second half of this year in
Slovenia. At the first and second conference
most of the speakers addressed the railway
sector in the Danube region.
Last event organized in Slovenia was the
first conference “Transport and Research in
the Danube region” on 2nd and 3rd April.
The idea is to stimulate discussion beyond
the narrow borders of different instruments
and policies. Effective and efficient transport
needs synergies of different policies.
The conference is going to bring together
researchers and interested stakeholders in
order to join forces for more efficient transport
in the Danube region. This special event
for the researchers and other actors in the
field of transport in the Danube Region is
designed as an opportunity to hear different
views on research and to contribute to the
implementation of the Danube Strategy and
to prepare for an active approach towards
Horizon 2020.
A conference “Transport and Logistics
in the SEE and the Danube Region” was
organised on 10th April in Belgrade. Like
most of transport related issues, also a lot of
work is needed to bridge the gap in logistics
performance between the Danube Region
Countries. Because nowadays global supply
chains are so varied and complex the
efficiency depends both on one hand on
government services, investments and policies
and on the other on private service providers.
Building infrastructure, developing
a regulatory base for transport services, designing
and implementing efficient customs
clearance procedures are areas where national
governments play an important role. The
gap between the Danube region countries is
enormous and reflects heterogeneity of the
macro-region (EU Member States, Candidate
countries and Neighbouring countries).
The EU Member States are part of the Single
European market that gives many advantages
to performing trade within the EU28.
The EU efforts to ease and harmonize activities
in the transport sector are marked
by e.g. White paper 2011: “Roadmap to a
Single European Transport Area - Towards a
competitive and resource efficient transport
system”, the communication by the European
commission on development of a Single
Railway Area (2010) with which European
www.railwaypro.com | August 2014
rail policy aims to facilitate the sustainable
development of the European economy by
providing high-quality, reliable, safe and
efficient services. Related to logistics the
European Commission adopted “Freight
Transport Logistics Action Plan” (2007). In
it series of measures to promote the freight
transport logistics, make rail freight more
competitive, create a framework which
will allow European ports to attract investment
for their modernization, put maritime
freight transport on an equal footing with
other transport modes and review progress
made in developing Motorways of the Sea
are proposed. The aim of above mentioned
EU initiatives is to use common approach
based on desired patterns leading to greater
efficiency and optimal capacity use, as well as
increased safety and security for all modes of
transport.
On the other hand non-EU Member States
within the macro-region has no common
guidelines, recommendations or policies. In
order to reduce disparities between the various
regions within the Danube macro-region
and wider in the Europe, in order to reach
economic, social and territorial cohesion
more balanced, more sustainable territorial
development should be promoted. Challenges
in the field of logistics in the Danube
region are many, among others:
• In order to narrow the gap between performances
of individual countries in the
region a common strategy for development
of transport infrastructure, better use of intermodal
transport and improved logistics
services is needed.
• Regardless of consequences caused by
the financial crises, global recession, slow improvements
in trade in many Danube region
countries logistics reform should be started
by respective governments as soon as possible.
The transport infrastructure gap and
transport services gap, including logistics
gap between mainly Western and Eastern
part of the Danube macro-region should be
Danube macro-region countries: LPI
ranking and scores 2012 (of 155 countries)
Country Rank Country Rank
Germany 4 Slovakia 51
Austria 11 Romania 54
Slovenia 34 Bosnia &
Herzegovina
55
Bulgaria 36 Ukraine 66
Hungary 40 Serbia 75
Croatia 42 Montenegro 120
Czech
Republic
44 Moldova 132
Source: World Bank , Connecting to compete 2012: Trade logistics in the global Economy
bridged.
• A long term commitments from policymakers
and private stakeholders is essential
to obtain a reliable supply chain, predictable
just on time or door-to-door service delivery
to customers and efficient logistics performance.
The efforts to improve logistics should
continue if the Danube region wants a competitive
environment within the Europe and
the World.
• Infrastructure stands out as the chief
driver of progress, yet too many countries in
the region stalled the infrastructure works or
delayed or postponed them. The quality and
availability of railways, in particular rail services
dissatisfy too many clients, while quality
and availability of motorways and high
performing ports (sea and river ports) varies
a lot across the macro-region. New intermodal
terminals need to be developed. Since at
present road transport plays a key role in the
supply chain for majority of goods missing
links need to be constructed and bottlenecks
removed.
• A comprehensive approach is needed to
reform border management, with attention
to all the relevant sectors and agencies. Custom
clearance procedures should be simplified.
• A response to the demand for “green logistics”
should be taken fully into account
when performing logistics services.
• In addition an advanced business model
that could present new opportunities to
the logistics sector should be searched for
and developed. In search for the new business
model it might be worth to study the
resource efficient circular economy concept
promoted also by the European commission
(2012).
If the logistic sector wants to have a vital
role to play in future Danube region economy
tailor-made solutions for variety of customers
that want specific services should
be made available and suppliers of logistics
services in the Danube region should strive
to be customer focused, innovative and globally
competitive.
Нуждается ли Дунайский
регион в новом
железнодорожном
коридоре?
В данной части интервью (первая часть
была опубликована в нашем выпуске за май
2014 года), которое дал Г-н Франк Жепич,
Координатор приоритетного отсека 1b-
EUSDR (Стратегии ЕС для Дунайского
региона) в Министерстве инфраструктуры
Словении, более широко затронуты такие
темы, как видение общей транспортной
системы на уровне Дунайского региона,
важность образования коридора, который
бы обеспечивал эффективные грузовые
перевозки между государствами ЕС
и не-членами ЕС, а также укрепление
сотрудничества между ответственными
учреждениями государств Дунайского
региона.