Overview

South East Europe is at an important crossroads in in its development. Over the past decade the region has made great strides in its transformation and integration into the global economy, notably through transport sector reform, perceived as an essential enabler of the region’s competitiveness objectives. An important milestone was reached in 2015 with the extension of the TEN-T Network to the Western Balkan countries. Overall, the region has invested or pledged to invest over EUR 13 billion in the ‘SEETO comprehensive network’ through the Western Balkans Investment Framework, IPA instrument, IFI loans, national budgets and other sources. 

The region’s authorities are already actively collaborating on these reform processes to address key horizontal challenges in the road sector. These include optimizing the use of existing assets, identifying new sources of funding, and reducing the burden of traffic injuries responsible for at least 1,500 deaths/year in the region. The private sector can make an important contribution to achieving these objectives, but its role remains constrained by the absence of a comprehensive engagement framework.

The International Road Federation (IRF) is pleased to collaborate with the South East Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO) in holding two working lunches in conjunction with the 12th SEETO Annual Ministerial Meeting and open to AMM delegates as well as transport stakeholders. By connecting transport decisions with a wider range of economic actors, these working lunches are designed to promote an informed policy debate and encourage reflection around new partnership models.

Registration Options

• Working Lunch 1: “Cutting traffic injuries through effective speed management”

There is ample research and empirical evidence demonstrating the relationship between speed and the risk of serious injury and death. With renewed scrutiny on the region’s road safety performance, and an expected global focus on speed management in 2017, this study lunch provides a setting for a broad discussion around education, enforcement and engineering measures available to policy makers and road safety professionals.

Setting the Stage: Graziella Jost, European Transport Safety Council

Speaker: Casto Lopez Benitez, European Commission

Speaker: Philip Wijers, Sensys-Gatso

Speaker: Rik Nuyttens, 3M

Speaker: Marcial Bustinduy Navas, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development

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• Working Lunch 2: “New road delivery and management models for South East Europe”

At a time of budgetary constraint, South East Europe is being challenged to identify new and cost-effective ways of delivering and managing its road infrastructure programs to ensure regional transport needs are met. This study lunch will explore the use of asset and contract management as well as cost recovery models, and discuss how to ensure country actors can be fully integrated into these programs. 

Setting the stage: Martijn van Gils, Rijkswaterstaat

Speaker: Chris Jennions, Bechtel

Speaker: Emmanuel Grandserre, 4iCom

Speaker: Jan Szulczyk, European Commission