On the 15th and 16th of October 2019, the fourth Steering Committee Meeting of the ADRIPASS project took place in Igoumenitsa (Greece). The meeting was hosted by The Regional Unit of Thesprotia/Region of Epirus, project partner, in the presence of the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the Igoumenitsa Port Authority (both Associated Partners).
During the 2-days meeting, the progress of project activities was analysed, in particular, those related to the implementation of the pilot actions through the use of information and communication technologies to streamline freight flows and improve the role of the ports as gates to the freight corridors for the enhancement of multimodal freight transport. Furthermore, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, a new project partner, presented the upcoming activities related to the transnational institutional cooperation.
The Central European Initiative (CEI), the Lead Partner of the ADRIPASS project, opened the meeting, presenting an overview of accomplished deliverables and further undertakings from now until the end of the project (postponed to June 2020).
Regarding the multimodal transport, The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki presented the final report of the results of data collection at Border Crossing Points at corridor level in the Adrion region, from the ports to the hinterland, underlining main issues and outlining possible solutions, also through Information and Communication Technologies tools. Special attention has been paid to the presentation of the main finding of the surveys at road BCPs, rail BCPs, and ports. The final version of the Data Collection Report is going to be updated in the next months as well as the key milestone of the Final Transnational action plan for the facilitation of freight transport in the ADRION region. The Institute for Transport and Logistic Foundation, who drafted the above mentioned Final Transnational action plan, is going to update the document once the new partner CCIS provides new data.
The Port of Koper, in its capacity as the partner leading the activities of the ports pilot actions, opened the meeting session dedicated to the pilots. The Port of Koper, the Port of Ploče, and the Port of Bar presented the state of the art of their pilot actions focused on the upgrading of their Port Community System. The Regional Unit of Thesprotia/Region of Epirus presented a platform for Port Community System flows analysis and an Augmented Reality virtual-navigation mobile app (now testing until 12/2019). The Port of Durres presented its pre-investment analysis already completed.
The reference to the technical work packages of the first-day meeting was completed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, who presented an overview of the ADRION Transnational institutional cooperation. Furthermore, all partners had the opportunity to discuss the transnational multimodal strategy concept proposed.
The second-day meeting was focused on administrative and financial issues as well as planning actions to disseminate and better promoting the project at local, national, and European levels. The Central European Initiative presented the state of the art of the management activities, including the expected contents of the Local Evaluation Reports before giving the floor to the EGTC Euregio Senza Confini, who presented an exhaustive overview of the state of the art of the completed and upcoming communication activities.
The next Steering Committee Meeting is scheduled to take place in Brussels next March, together with a Transnational workshop where the project partners will disseminate to EU policy the ADRIPASS project results. The final meeting of the project will take place in Trieste (Italy) in June 2020.
