One of the priorities of the Transport Community in 2024 will be the operationalization of the Western Balkans-Eastern Mediterranean European Transport Corridor, which connects eight EU Member States with the Western Balkans in one network for the first time. A new generation of action plans for rail, road, road safety, and transport facilitation for the adoption of EU transport legislation will also be developed, says Matej Zakonjšek, Director of the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Community, in an interview for European Western Balkans.
The Transport Community was founded in 2017 by the European Union Member States and the six South East European Parties. Its Permanent Secretariat, currently headed by Zakonjšek, was opened in Belgrade in 2019.
“The Transport Community has only one, very important and hard-to-achieve goal, and that is the complete integration of the Western Balkans transport markets into the European Union’s. This means that there will be no difference between how transport is organized and what standards are used here in the Western Balkans, or in Sweden, or Slovenia”, Zakonjšek says.
In December 2023, a political agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to revise the regulation on the Trans-European Transport Network. Among other changes, it regulates the integration of the six Western Balkan partners into the newly established Western Balkans-Eastern Mediterranean European Transport Corridor.
“This will, for the first time, connect eight EU member states with the Western Balkans six in one network. It starts in Austria, it goes then from Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, the entire Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Greece, and ends with a maritime connection to Cyprus. All of this, for the first time, becomes one”, Matej Zakonjšek says.
He adds that this is very significant, because, up to now, there was a “black box” in the middle of the European transport network. “We are going to have one seamless European network this time” he adds.
“In 2024, this will start to become a reality. Making this European Transport Corridor operational will be one of the key tasks this year”, the Transport Community’s Permanent Secretariat Director says.
Another immediate priority of the Transport Community is the creation of a new generation of action plans for rail, road, road safety, and transport facilitation for the period 2024-2027. The Community is assisting the Western Balkans in adopting the EU transport standards, and the Action Pans will include the priorities for the coming years.
A general need for modernization of transport is still present in the region. As an illustration, Zakonjšek points out that currently, there are only two international passenger railway lines in the entire region – one between Serbia, and Montenegro (Belgrade-Bar), and the second, local one between Serbia and Hungary.
“When it was built, it took seven hours to complete a one-way journey on the Belgrade-Bar railway. Now, it takes at least eleven hours. It is mainly due to the lack of maintenance. This is why firstly maintaining, and then modernizing and upgrading the network, is so important”, Zakonjšek says.
Currently, only 13.4% of the EU legislation on transport has been fully transposed, while 15.8% is partially transposed in the Western Balkans. The majority, 70.9%, remains to be transposed.
Commenting on the percentages, Zakonjšek says that the amount of EU legislation that needs to be transposed is enormous, as about one-quarter of the entire EU acquis is transport-related, so it is a challenge for everybody.
“However, we would like to see, in general, more and faster progress on reforms. That is a message that is valid for everybody, and that resonates with everybody. This was also presented and discussed at our Ministerial Council Meeting in December. There is a difference when it comes to the regional partners and the modes of transport, but the overall picture is that more progress is needed”, he says, adding that the capacity within the administrations is one of the areas that needs improvement.
Transport Community’s data show that Serbia is the most advanced in the region when it comes to the transposition of EU legislation in the area of transport, followed by Montenegro. Zakonjšek believes that this is partially due to the different stages of the EU accession processes, but also different starting points in this process.
“Some of the regional partners, such as Serbia, and Montenegro, are in the EU accession negotiations process for quite a while. This gives a different dynamic. Secondly, when we are talking about the projects, it is important to underline the legacy of the past. Some regional partners were a part of the same country and that, logically, connected their rails and roads. Albania, historically, was very isolated and that gives completely different challenges for its transport market modernization”, he says.
The issue that is often connected to reforms is their financing. One of the conclusions of the annual 2023 Transport Community report on the extension of the trans-European network to the Western Balkans states that, despite the substantial resources available for infrastructure improvements, they fall short of covering the identified needs.
We asked Mr Zakonjšek whether the New EU Growth Plan for the region, presented last year, can improve the situation in this regard. The Plan, recently introduced by the European Commission, proposes the enhancement of the Western Balkan’s economic integration with the European Union’s Single Market.
“The New Growth Plan will be very important for the pace of reforms and projects in the field of transport, as it identifies transport as one of the priority areas. It also identifies other areas, such as energy, where further reforms are needed and will be supported. What is important about the Growth Plan is that the EU is stepping towards the region, identifying the areas in which integration based on EU rules and standards can happen even before the enlargement”, he says.
Zakonjšek adds that, when it comes to the needs of the entire region, the current funds do fall short, and that is why anything extra – the Growth Plan, the engagement of the private sector, has to be welcomed as they are reducing the existing gap between the needs and possibilities.
“The financing needs are such that we need everybody on board. For us at the TCT Secretariat, it is essential that all projects are done according to the EU legislation and standards, as this is part of the Transport Community Treaty. And the needs are such that, of course, much more money is needed”, he adds.
In recent years, various infrastructure, and transport projects from across the region have been plagued with allegations of non-transparency and potential corruption. This is less likely to occur with the projects financed and co-financed by the EU, Zakonjšek points out. He adds that that the EU-funded projects follow strict mechanisms for allocating the funds, and monitoring how these funds are spent.
“I think this is why European financing is desirable. The Transport Community Permanent Secretariat looks at whether the projects comply with the legislation. That is our main task. Anyhow, I believe that the regional partners should follow the EU standards, including those on public procurement as following these rules brings the Western Balkans closer to the EU”, he concludes.