In early spring new Policy Area Coordinators (PACs) were nominated to the PA Transport. The position of Sweden was taken over by Estonia. Lithuania continued as a coordinating nation but already in the new role of the Lead PAC.
Coordinators have decided to continue the work already started by their predecessors. In their opinion previous PACs did an excellent job in defining priorities (actions) which are very relevant and are taking into consideration challenges the region and transport sector is facing.
"Actions are ambitious and are in line with sectorial EU strategies”, is PACs view. Transport sector faces numerous challenges - the impact of the Green Deal, developments in the field of digitalization, automatization and consequences of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The latest has significant impact to the transport activities in the Baltic Sea Region. EU air carriers´ flights over Russian territory are banned, railway transport via Russia and Belorussia has practically halted and the truck transport to and from these countries is not the same as it was a half year ago. This means that existing transport corridors do not function anymore and new alternative routes which avoid these states must be created. PACs are in the opinion that PA Transport should have a role in this process. For instance, in cooperation with their partner organisation Northern Dimension partnership on Transport and Logistics (NDPTL) they analyse the capability to offer expertise to evaluate current situation, identify possible new corridors and offer solutions how to make them more efficient. The reality is that there are not many alternatives and probably only one is realistic - southern route passing Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia. Therefore, it was very much appreciated that the meeting with colleagues of the Danube Region was organised by the team of the Let’s Communicate project. Due to this initiative PA Transport had an opportunity to start networking for further cooperation.
“We really would like to say good words about Let’s Communicate project team during these couple of months, we have had so many positive contacts with their international team. We really appreciate cooperation with them”.
PA Transport is in opinion that it is important to establish strong partnership between Ukraine and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The country, in one hand, needs professional technical support and in other hand, offers huge opportunities for our transport companies. The fact is that one day the war will be over, which means Ukraine will start to rebuild the country. For the transport sector it means that massive flow of construction materials must be moved to Ukraine to reconstruct destroyed transport infrastructure like roads, railway lines and ports, but this time already taking into consideration sustainable and innovative standards. PA Transport could also contribute its stakeholders’ valuable expertise in that field.
Of course, the PA Transport does not prioritise only connectivity. Same level of attention will be turned into the topic digitalization and their implementation in the transport sector. Keywords will be paperless cargo documents and data exchange. Other areas which would need ambitious approach are urban mobility and last mile solutions. It would be interesting to see project ideas how to start cargo transport by drones in urban areas or use of electric vertical take off and landing aircrafts (eVTOL aircrafts) in city environment. These are ambitious ideas but the Baltic Sea Region has defined itself as a leading region in innovation. We have to show that we deserve this title.