Transport and Communications Group

Minutes of meeting in the NSC Transport and Communications group -Kristiansand, Vest-Agder, 26-27 May 2004 

Participants:

Jan Hallberg, Västra Götalands region, Chair (Swe)

Jon Halvard Eide, Vest-Agder, Co-ordinator (Nor)

Diane Campion, Aberdeenshire (Sco)

Wim Stubbe, West-Flanders, (Bel)

Anne-Sophie Legendre, Nord Pas de Calais (Fra)

Marjolein Zwerver, Groningen Seaports (Holl)

Lars Dagnæs, South Jutland (Den)

Brian Sørensen, Aarhus (Den)

Tommy Madsen, North Jutland (26 May only)

Flemming Wennike, Ringkøbing (Den)

Hanne Marie Sørensen, Viborg (Den)

Odd Moldestad, Sør-Trøndelag (Nor)

Leif Storsve, Vest-Agder (Nor)

Egil Strømme, Vest-Agder (26 May only)

Amila Duka, Project leader NTN, Vest-Agder (Nor)

Henrik Jensen, NSC Secretariat

Per Bruun-Lie, Short Sea Promotion Centre Norway, speaker (27 May only)

Apologies

Maria A. Larsson, Västra Götalands region

Bengt Wennerberg, Business Region Gothenburg

Chris Kutesko, Norfolk

Per Strømhaug, Nordland

Hans Jürgen Hett, Schleswig & Holstein

Christel Daesler Lohmüller, Emden

26 May - presentation of host region and local transport projects

The meeting heard presentations of the host region Vest-Agder, as well as of several local projects within Public Transport, Road Safety and Freight transport. The meeting also discussed a paper from the Co-ordinator on “Future activities and methods of working”. The conclusions in relation to this paper are integrated under the relevant items on the agenda of the ordinary business meeting. The presentations will be mailed out separately from the minutes (or probably put out on the NSC web site if the file size is too big for mailing).

Ordinary business meeting 27 May

1. Minutes of meeting in Gothenburg 26 January 2004

The minutes of the meeting in Gothenburg on 26 January were approved

2. NSC initiative on Partnership for ports, sea transport and waterways - status and response

The Co-ordinator made a short introduction on the history and development of the Partnership initiative, and went through the main elements of the response so far.

Positive responses have been received from about 15-20 Regional authorities, Ports, Shipping organisations, private companies, business development organisations, research institutions and Interreg projects in England, Scotland, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Denmark. Several stakeholders in the Baltic Sea region have also expressed an interest in the initiative. However, most of the responses have a rather awaiting character - displaying interest, but also requesting more information on the intended content of the Partnership.

The Co-ordinator felt that the response so far makes the initiative worth while following up, but pointed to the need of clarifying the role and functions of a Partnership in relation to already existing port- and short sea Organisations in Europe. The issues of organisation and funding should also be further explored when the role and functions have been clarified

Mr. Per Bruun-Lie, leader of the Short Sea Promotion Centre in Norway, and member of the European Short Sea Network - ESN, had been invited to give a presentation on the ESN (see enclosure), as well as to give his views on the further development of the Partnership idea. Mr. Bruun-Lie has also been appointed as the ESN contact person in relation to the Partnership initiative.

Discussion and comments

The meeting thanked Mr. Bruun-Lie for an interesting presentation. The meeting felt that the presentation in several respects had clarified the scope of action for the NSC in this field. 

Some members felt that the Partnership initiative should be made more specific in order to attract more interest. The need for specification and more focus could be read out of the responses to the initiative so far. In this way, the target groups would also be clearer. Due to the objectives and profile of the NSC, the Partnership initiative should concentrate on peripheral areas with smaller ports and weaker traffic flows. The stakeholders in peripheral areas would probably also benefit more from being part of such a partnership than what is the case for stakeholders in central areas.  

The meeting felt that there is a complementarity between the ESN and the NSC which could be fruitful for the development of a future co-operation. The ESN is pursuing a more uni-dimensional objective (promoting shipping only), is more business-oriented and concentrates its efforts more on the routes and ports with the biggest potential for transferring freight from road to sea. The ESN is also a network for the national authorities. The NSC for its part is pursuing a broader regional development agenda where shipping is a means of promoting accessibility, sustainability and cohesion. The NSC is also more occupied with securing and developing shipping services to/from peripheral areas where the traffic potential is weaker, and is thus sceptical towards a too heavy concentration of freight and services in the biggest ports and on the most trafficated routes. The NSC is in this picture also concerned with the development of smaller and medium-sized ports.

Decisions & follow-up

• The role of the Transport group in relation to the ESN and a possible future Partnership should be finally defined at the next meeting of the group in October
• Mr. Bruun-Lie will distribute a report from this meeting to his colleagues in the ESN
• The ESN and the Transport group should distribute information about each other within each respective network
• The Transport group, by its Dutch member Marjolein Zwerver, makes a contact to the next ESN Presidency in the Netherlands (as from 1 July), Mr. Verlaath, in order to learn more about the plans and priorities of the Dutch ESN Presidency.
• The Transport group should compile a report on its work, role and achievements within SSS, and submit the report to the ESN by Mr. Bruun-Lie
• Mr. Bruun-Lie will investigate the feasibility of inviting a representative of the Transport group to a separate meeting of the SSS Promotion Centres in the North Sea countries

3.Update and discussion on relevant issues and initiatives of the Transport group

A. Report from seminar on Motorways (MOS) of the Sea in Klaipéda, 8-9 March

The Co-ordinator participated at the seminar in Klaipeda on behalf of the NSC. The other representatives from the North Sea Region came from the Port of Gothenburg, Institute for Transportstudier in Padborg, Denmark and Napier University in Edinburgh. 

The Co-ordinator went through the main points of the draft final declaration from the seminar which had been distributed to the participants prior to the meeting.

Comments and suggestions from the meeting

Mr. Hallberg said that the representative of the Port of  Gothenburg had been impressed by the seminar in Klaipeda. This representative had also emphasised the need for a closer co-operation between the Baltic Sea and North Sea regions on the issue of the MOS.

Mr. Dagnæs would like the draft final declaration to more clearly reflect the significance of Interreg projects for the development of the Motorways of the seas concept.  

The meeting requested the Co-ordinator to find out more about the status of the CPMR initiative to launch a network on “Europe of the Sea” as an Interreg IIIC-bid, as well as the mentioned CPMR event on the MOS by the end of 2004.  

Decisions & follow-up

• The Co-ordinator checks the status and progress of the above mentioned CPMR initiatives
• The Co-ordinator drafts a paragraph in the Final Declaration from the Klaipeda-seminar more clearly reflecting the significance of Interreg projects for the development of MOS, and then submits it to the Secretary of the Baltic Sea Commission Transport group.
• One group member from each country should check the positions and possible plans of their respective Governments on the MOS issue

Scotland: Diane Campion

England: Chris Kutesko

France: Anne-Sophie Legendre

Belgium/Flanders: Wim Stubbe

Netherlands: Marjolein Zwerver

Germany: Hans Jürgen Hett

Denmark: Brian Sørensen

Sweden: Maria Larsson/Bengt Wennerberg

Norway: Odd Moldestad

B. SustAccess - Interreg IIIB project on sustainable transport

This project was originally initiated by the Transport group and further developed with a basis in the Aarhus-conference on sustainable transport in 2002. The following regions are members of both the project and the group: Västra Götaland, Aberdeenshire, South Jutland/Inst. for Transportstudier and Vest-Agder. The Co-ordinator was happy to inform the meeting that the project was approved by the Steering Committee of the North Sea Programme on 12 May, despite a negative recommendation from the Secretariat. The inaugural conference of the project is expected to take place in September.

In a paper distributed to the group on 25 May, the Co-ordinator proposed that the group should co-operate with the SustAccess project in various ways.

Such co-operation could take the form of:

• Mutual attendance in meetings, conferences, workshops (would to a large extent be automatically secured through overlapping membership)
• Exchange of information and findings
• Use SA-findings as basis for NSC policy recommendations (resolutions, input to EU transport policy)
• Organisation of joint events.

The SA-project is planning for an International North Sea sustainable transport conference in February 2007. See also item 5 - Any other Business. 

Decisions & follow-up

• The meeting endorsed the proposal to establish a co-operation between the Transport group and the SustAccess project as outlined above. The group members also partners to the SustAccess project have a particular responsibility to take care of / develop this co-operation.
• An effort should be made to recruit SA-partner regions to become active members of the Transport group

C. Concept - Interreg IIIC project on exchange of good practice in sustainable transport

Diane Campion made a brief presentation of the project, in which Aberdeenshire is Lead Partner and Vest-Agder is one of the partners. She also distributed some information leaflets on the project.

The meeting felt that also the Concept-project could be a relevant source of information/ platform of co-operation in relation to the group’s work within sustainable transport. The fact that the lead partner of the project, Aberdeenshire, is an active member of the Transport group, and the home region of the Co-ordinator, Vest-Agder, is a partner to the project was assumed to facilitate co-operation and exchange with the Concept-project.

See also item 5 - Any other Business.

D. Prospects for future ICT event in co-operation with NSC Economical Development group            

The Co-ordinator gave a short update on status and recent developments on this issue.

A joint NSC event on ICT and broadband technologies which was scheduled for 3 – 5 March in East Lothian, Scotland, had to be postponed due to low interest. The last meeting of the Economic Development group in April decided to look again at doing this event - but suggested that it should, perhaps be part of a related meeting or event - e.g. part of a relevant

Interreg project partners meeting or an existing Broadband conference.

Scottish Enterprise and Napier University (in Edinburgh) are both still

interested in helping us with this. The Co-ordinator of the EDG will contact Napier

University and Scottish Enterprise to find out if there are any events in

Scotland that we could join. The Transport group is requested to come up with suggestions.

Comments and suggestions by the meeting

It was pointed out that the Transport group is lacking both competence and capacity to handle the whole range of ICT issues. On this background the group should cease to treat ICT as a separate item, but rather start to handle the subject as an integral part of the transport work. This change of focus and approach would make it logical to delete the term “communication” from the name of the group. The Terms of Reference should be amended accordingly.

Decisions & follow-up

• The meeting decided that the group from here on should handle ICT issues as an integral part of the transport work, and not as a separate item.
•   On this background, the group will ask the NSC Executive Committee for a permission to amend the name of the group - taking out the term “commmunications”, and to amend the Terms of Reference accordingly. 
• The Co-ordinator makes a recommendation to the Executive Committee to this effect
•   The meeting re-affirmed the group’s commitment to take part in the organisation of a possible future joint ICT event together with the Economical Development group and the Education and Research group.

4. Update on NSC issues,

Henrik M. Jensen from the NSC Secretariat gave an update on current NSC issues.

NSC  General Assembly in Gothenburg 16-18 June

About 150 persons have registered for the General Assembly. The same number has registered for the Interreg 3B exhibition in Gothenburg on the 16th of June.

Bent Hansen has announced that he will step down as President of the NSC after holding this office for 9 years. There are two candidates for the Presidency: Mr. Roland Anderson, President of the Västra Götaland Region, and Ms. Gunn Marit Helgesen, County Mayor of Telemark and currently one of the Vice Presidents of the NSC. Mr. Anderson and Ms. Helgesen were regarded to be strong candidates from regions with a long experience from the NSC. The Secretariat will be moved from Viborg Amt to the home region of the new President.

Henrik Jensen informed that this would probably be his last meeting in the Transport group as Executive Secretary. The meeting thanked Henrik for his valuable contribution to the meetings of the group, and hoped to be able to meet him from time to time in other forums.

Future EU regional policy - 3rd report on Economic and Social cohesion

Mr. Jensen predicted that the battle would stand over the size of the budget allocated for the regional policy. The NSC is co-operating with the CPMR on this issue. On the basis of the report, it is quite likely that there will be an Interreg IV-programme, but it is not sure that there will be a specific programme for the North Sea region as now. The fact that the North Sea Programme so far has avoided to send back funds and thus has delivered better than Interreg programmes in other areas, is an argument for maintaining a North Sea programme.

Status of Interreg IIIB North Sea Programme

About 90 % of the total budget have now been spent and there is about € 10 mill. left in the programme. There will only be one more call  - focusing on certain strategic priorities. The Secretariat will present a paper about the priorities for the final call shortly.

Other issues

The Issue Group on Sustainable Shipping under the North Sea Ministerial Conference has drafted a paper on emissions from ships in harbours. The paper is concluding that ships in harbours are polluting a lot, in some cases as much as 100 trucks.  

Several NSC thematic groups have drafted a NSC position paper to the OSPAR guidelines on wind energy which was adopted by the NSC Executive Committee in March.

5. Any other business

Organising a conference on sustainable transport in co-operation with the NTN-project

Background

At the meeting in Gothenburg on 26 January, the Project leader of the NTN-project informed that the NTN is planning a conference on sustainable transport in the spring of 2005, and suggested that the feasibility of organising the conference as a joint event with the NSC should be explored. The meeting in Gothenburg welcomed this suggestion and assumed that it should be possible to have a common event due to the thematical overlap between the two projects (particularly within freight transport).

The Project leader of NTN re-confirmed their interest in co-operating with the NSC Transport group in organising a conference on sustainable transport in May 2005. Such a joint event was assumed to be cost effective for both “parties” and it would reach a broader target group than what project and the group could do separately.

Decisions & follow-up

• The meeting and the representatives of the NTN-project agreed to plan for the organisation a joint NTN & NSC conference on sustainable transport in May 2005, probably in Kristiansand
•   The conference will apply a broad definition of sustainability, covering all aspects such as efficiency & economy, environment and social aspects.
•   It was agreed to collect best practice cases also from outside the North Sea region in order to have access to a wider universe of knowledge and experience. The Interreg IIIC project Concept, the Baltic Sea Commission and other CPMR Commissions should be used as relevant channels & platforms for the collection of best practice cases and involvement of actors from outside the NS region.
• Regional politicians in the North Sea area should be invited to the conference.
•   The conference should as far as feasible use the Aarhus conference as a model, with keynote plenary speeches from politicians and experts, and presentations of best practice in parallel sessions
•   The meeting decided to establish a conference Task Force consisting of the following members:

-Amila Duka, Vest-Agder, project leader of the NTN-project

-Marjolein Zwerver, Groningen Sea Ports

-Maria A. Larsson, Västra Götaland region, liaison to the SustAccess project

-Per Strømhaug, Secretary of the BSC Transport group (liaision to Baltic Sea)

-Jon Halvard Eide, Vest-Agder, liaison to the NSC Transport group

Scope and profile of future Interreg programmes

According to the 3rd Report on Economic and Social Cohesion from the EU Commission, transport projects would not be eligible under a future Interreg IV Programme.

On this background, the meeting decided that the group should formulate arguments in favour of including transport as an eligible theme in a future Interreg IV Programme. It was also decided to follow the upcoming revision of the NORVISION document in order to make sure that transport issues are taken care of.  The revision is expected to be assigned to a national transport ministry in the North Sea region, but it was not known at the time of the meeting which national ministry.

Decisions & follow-up

• The group will formulate arguments in favour of including transport as an eligible theme in a future Interreg IV Programme. The group should also be following the upcoming revision of the NORVISION document. 
• It was decided to set up a task force with the following members for influencing the scope and profile of a future Interreg  Programme:

-Anne-Sophie Legendre, Nord Pas de Calais

-Wim Stubbe, West-Flanders

-Lars Dagnæs, South Jutland

-Leif Storsve, Vest-Agder

Action Plan

Decisions & follow-up

• The Co-ordinator was requested to draft an Action Plan for the group and to circulate a draft in good time before the next meeting

  Regional Air Transport

Diane Campion informed the meeting about a resolution on regional air transport emanating from the Interreg IIIB project SEAPLANE. It was agreed that the group should also be regularly informed about the results and developments in this project as both West-Flanders, Highlands & Islands and Vest-Agder are partners to the project. The resolution is attached to the minutes.

Jan Hallberg mentioned in this connection that representatives from Västra Götaland are members of a network for regional Air Ports, and he offered to find out more about this network to the next meeting.

Click HERE for Resolution.

Marketing of Short Sea Shipping (SSS)

Diane Campion mentioned that the Province of Groningen and Aberdeenshire are co-operating to kick-start a market scheme for SSS under the Interreg IIIB-project NMC. She assumed that it would probably be useful to consult the ESN in this connection, as the ESN has worked quite a lot on marketing issues.

6. Date and location of next meeting (September - October)

The next meeting is scheduled for 7 - 8 October in Aberdeenshire.

Main issues:

• Scope and profile of a future Interreg Programme - arguments in favour of including transport issues
• Partnership on ports, sea transport and inland waterways
•  Action Plan for the Transport group for 2005
•   Joint conference on sustainable transport in co-operation with the NTN-project.

The agenda will also include status and progress reports on other current issues and projects, as well as an item on general NSC issues.

Suggestions for agenda items should be submitted to the Co-ordinator.