Conference highlights green corridors’ benefits

26 September 2011, ENDS Europe

Green corridors have an important role to play in delivering new transport policy goals in the European Commission’s March white paper, the Polish EU presidency said at a conference held in Szczecin, Poland, last week.

Delegates from Poland, the European Commission, trade association and logistics firms gave presentations highlighting efforts to develop green corridors, which are multimodal transport networks intended to move freight more efficiently.

For example, an official from Poland’s industrial development agency ARP gave an update on a major rail terminal in Slawkow which connects China and Russia to western Europe. Some PLN50m (€11.3m) will be invested between 2011 and 2014 to increase container handling capacity, the ARP official told delegates.

An academic from the national technical university of Athens also outlined work conducted under the EU-funded ‘Supergeen’ project, which was launched in 2010 and aims to promote the green corridors concept in Europe. A workshop was held in Italy on 12 September to discuss benchmarks and key performance indicators.

Poland’s transport initiatives have come under fire recently. Green group CEE Bankwatch issued a study in September showing the member state has been massively directing EU regional funds at road developments since 2007. Out of €19.4bn available for transport, some €10bn was spent on roads, according to the NGO.

Follow-up:

Polish presidency press release, conference programme and presentations 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7. See also Supergreen workshop, plus project website