On 4th December, the CEI – Executive Secretariat (CEI – Lead Partner) and GECT Euregio Senza Confini (EGTC) hosted the ADRIPASS dissemination event in Trieste, Italy.
Mr. Roberto Antonione, CEI Secretary-General, welcomed the participants stressing the importance of the transport sector as one of the fundamental pillars on which CEI’s mission is based. CEI aims at supporting European integration and sustainable development through cooperation between and among its Member States and with the European Union, international and regional organisations, as well as with other public or private institutions and non-governmental organisations. Ms. Sandra Sodini, director of the ‘GECT Euregio Senza Confini,’ stressed the importance of the integration process towards the Western Balkans. Speaking about the new incoming programme 2021-2027, she commented that it should be correlated to the strategic programming of various funds such as EUSAIR and that it is necessary to find a strategic dimension between territorial cooperation and regional as well as national programming.
Within ADRIPASS, the analysis of the integrated multimodal transport in the Adriatic-Ionian region was performed with data collection of border-crossing points at corridor level, underlining main issues, and possible ICT solutions. Mr. Carlo Vaghi, scientific director of Fit Consulting s.r.l., illustrated the analysis of bottlenecks at the border crossing points in the ADRION area and the results of the study carried out in Croatia and Slovenia. The analyses carried out through desk and field researches highlighted physical, organizational, and IT problems about the transport nodes in question. The Institute for Transport and Logistic Foundation (ITL), project partner of the ADRIPASS project, gave an insight to the Final Transnational action plan for transport facilitation in the ADRION region, a key milestone of the ADRIPASS project, which is based on the above-mentioned results. Mr. Luppino noted that a solution to barriers present at border crossings point is represented by the analysis and the adoption of soft measures (ICT).
Seaports play a crucial role as the main gateway to transport networks, serving hinterland and catchment areas that go beyond their local and national borders. In the ADRIPASS project, five selected ports have been implementing specific actions to improve their efficiency: the Port of Koper, the Port of Ploče, the Port of Bar, the Port of Durrës, and the region of Epirus in cooperation with the Port of Igoumenitsa. These ports mainly concentrate on developing or upgrading their Port Community Systems, which are the key ICT tools for the exchange of information between and among operators, clients, national customs, and other authorities. Mr. Roberto Richter from the Port of Koper gave a detailed overview of all pilot actions performed in the ports. The Port of Koper, the Port of Ploče, and the Port of Bar focused on the upgrading of their Port Community System. The Regional Unit of Thesprotia/Region of Epirus developed a platform for Port Community System flows analysis and an Augmented Reality virtual-navigation mobile app (now testing until 12/2019). Last but not least, the pre-investment study for setting up a Port Community System in the Port of Durres was presented. The study defines all project components, including software and hardware requirements, the modules to be implemented according to the vessel, truck, and rail functionalities.
Mr. Alain Baron, interim director of the Transport Community Treaty, underlined the importance of having more focused and coordinated strategies to collect tangible results from numerous projects. Still, he raised the question of how such results, strategies plans could be implemented. He also complimented the ADRIPASS project as a concrete example of the transport system of tomorrow, a sustainable project that guarantees immediate results and should, therefore, be an example to follow and re-use within the framework of the policies that are maturing within the Transport Community Treaty.
Mr. Pierluigi Coppola, Pillar 2 coordinator for the EUSAIR – Adriatic-Ionian Euroregion, illustrated the strategic priorities of the European Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Euroregion and the added value of the ADRIPASS project. Mr. Coppola noted that ADRIPASS is directly linked to the EUSAIR strategy as it improves connectivity in the ADRION region and transport exchange with the rest of Europe. Thanks to the pilot actions and the approach used for the stakeholder engagement, ADRIPASS showed that its activities do not stop at analysis or studies. In this occasion, he invited ADRIPASS as a testimony to the next annual EUSAIR forum focused on ports-hinterland connections. The Forum will be held in Belgrade in May 2020.
Ms. Barbara Di Piazza, Head of ADRION Joint Secretariat emphasized that the primary mission of ADRION to support the macro-region is to act as a policy driver as a tool to encourage innovation and management of the same through network funding, cooperation agreements, strategies, action plans. The projects financed in the transport sector were equally divided between the relevance of transport needs, in particular, the multimodality and the needs of maritime transport with those of the requirements related to land transport. Ms. Di Piazza underlined the importance of the ADRIPASS results and informed participants about the first ADRION Capitalization event that will take place in Rome on 11th December. Other capitalization events will be held to promote the transport axis through cross-linking, synergies, and clusters, starting from 2020.
