Transport and Communications Group
M I N U T E S
of meeting in the NSC Transport & Communications group,
Gothenburg, Sweden, 26th January 2004
Present (ordinary group members):
Jan Hallberg, Västra Götaland region, Chair (Swe)
Jon Halvard Eide, Vest-Agder, Co-ordinator (Nor)
Maria A. Larsson, Västra Götaland (Swe)
Bengt Wennerberg, Gothenburg Business Region (Swe)
Chris Kutesko, Norfolk (UK)
Hanne Marie Sieg Sørensen, Viborg Amt (Den)
Lars Dagnæs, South Jutland (Den)
Brian Sørensen, Aarhus Amt (Den)
Flemming Wennicke, Ringkøbing Amt (Den)
Amila Duka, Project Leader NTN, Vest-Agder (Nor)
Henrik M. Jensen, Executive Secretary NSC
Others - guest speakers,
observers:
Mats-Ola Larsson
Niklas Gustavsson, Volvo car co-operation
Bernt Nielsen, Public Transport Authority City of Göteborg
Gunnar Ingelman,
FordonsGas Väst AB
Anders Jønsson, Västra Götaland
Region
Ingrid Vinblad, -------------”--------------
Apologies
Odd Moldestad, Sør-Trøndelag fylkeskommune (Nor)
Hans Jürgen Hett,
Schleswig Holstein (Ger)
Tommy Madsen, North-Jutland (Den)
Jim Wade, Northamptonshire, Vice-Chair (UK)
Dennis Freeman, Aberdeenshire (Sco)
Agenda
The agenda for this meeting was devoted to the theme of ”Sustainable
transport solutions in urban regions”. Several quest speakers from the
host region had been invited to give presentations over this theme.
Welcome
The Chairman, Mr. Jan Hallberg, welcomed the group to Gothenburg and
expressed an hope that it would be an interesting meeting on the theme of
Sustainable transport solutions in urban regions - an area where the Västra
Götaland region is at the forefront in many respects.
Presentation of Västra Götaland
Region (VGR)
Maria Larsson gave a presentation of the Västra Götaland Region. See
also the web page of VGR at http://www.region.vastragotaland.se
VGR was established as a region in
1999 as a merger of three former county councils. The organisation is part
of a trial scheme which goes on until 2006.
Population: 1,5 mill
Area: 24.000 km2
Density: 63 inhabitants per km2
49 municipalities
Regional Council: 149 members, Executive board: 17 members
No of employees: 48.000
Main responsibilities: Culture, Public Transport, regional development and
health
The VGR is a leading Scandinavian
growth region with a strong automobile industry (Volvo, Saab) and leading
companies within ICT and telecommunications. About half of the import/export
to Sweden goes over VGR. The region is a transport hub on the Oslo -
Copenhagen route. Landvätter Airport outside Gothenburg is the 2nd biggest
in Sweden.
The Regional development strategy of
VGR was adopted in 1999 (can be downloaded from the web page). The budget
for transport infrastructure is € 5,5 bn. The region has now succeeded in
convincing the national politicians of the need for heavy infrastructure
investments in VGR, and the Government has decided to speed up the
allocation of a substantial grant for road and rail construction which may
start as soon the regional plans are ready. Although this is a positive
development, there is still a substantial need for further transport
infrastructure investments in the VGR.
Minutes of meeting from Gent 10
September 2003
The minutes were approved.
Presentations on the theme -
Sustainable transport solutions in urban regions
The presentations are attached to the minutes of the meeting. Only brief
descriptions of each theme are included here.
Eco vehicles in Göteborg
The Eco vehicles project aims to increase the use of vehicles which are
more environmentally friendly than current petrol and diesel vehicles.
Mats-Ola Larsson
Transport development in urban
regions
TRUST is a project with Volvo Car Co-operation, Volvo AB, and city of Göteborg
and Business Region Göteborg.
Introduction
Bengt Wennerberg
Project development of Compressed
natural gas–powered cars
Niklas Gustavsson, Volvo car cooperation
CNG fuelling stations
Development of fuelling stations in the western part of Sweden
Gunnar
Ingelman, FordonsGas (vehicle) Väst AB
Think tram – go by bus
Gas busses developed by Volvo AB used as ”stombuss” in Göteborg.
Bernt Nielsen, city of Göteborg
The meeting found the
presentations above most interesting and informative. The presentations will
obviously contribute to strengthen the competence of the group in this
field, and the speakers would be good candidates for future conferences. It
was also pointed out that the presentations represent good examples of
cross-sectorial co-operation between public authorities and private
industries (car- and energy producers), which could serve as a model for
other NSC regions as well.
Update on current projects &
initiatives of the NSC Transport and Communications group
Development of a Partnership
on ports, shipping and waterways
A first draft was distributed to the
members of the Transport group and Economical Development group by the
Co-ordinator in late October. The was no substantial objections to this
draft. A revised proposal was distributed by the Co-ordinator on 16 January
to all NSC member regions, relevant Interreg projects in the North Sea and
Baltic Sea region, as well as to the SSS Promotion Centres in the North Sea
and Baltic countries. The recipients were requested to forward the proposal
to all relevant stakeholders in their regions, organisations and projects.
Positive responses from several regions and projects have been forthcoming
already.
The meeting questioned whether all
NSC regions would be likely to forward the proposal to their respective
ports. The members of the group should therefore check whether their ports
had actually received the proposal. There were also questions about how the
Partnership was going to be funded and organised, hereunder who is supposed
to be in charge of the Secretariat. It was furthermore suggested that the
tasks and functions of the Partnership should be made more specific, and
that the remit should be narrower. Some thought that the distributed
proposal is too vague to attract sufficient response and that many ports and
SSS organisations are already part of an European network. It was also
argued that May - June would be too early to stage an initial meeting as
suggested in the proposal.
There could on the other hand be
advantages in being broad and general at this stage, leaving it up to the
core stakeholders themselves to further specify the tasks and functions of
the Partnership. The primary task of the NSC in this initiative is therefore
to explore the interest for and eventually facilitate the establishment and
operation of a Partnership.
Follow up:
- All members of the group should
investigate whether the Partnership proposal has been distributed to the
ports and other relevant stakeholders in their regions, and if not make
sure that such distribution takes place
- The Co-ordinator should keep the
group informed about the response to the Partnership proposal
- The groups (incl. the NSC
Economical Development group) decide by the next meeting whether there
is sufficient interest for establishing a Partnership
- If there is sufficient interest,
the groups should set up a more specific agenda for an initial meeting
on the basis of the responses to the Partnership proposal, incl. draft
provisions for organisation and funding. According to this schedule, the
autumn of 2004 is assumed to be a more appropriate date for an initial
meeting.
NSC input to CPMR´s proposal
for the 2004 revision of the TEN-T
The NSC recommendations on the TEN-T revision were distributed to
the members of the group, the NSC Secretariat, the CPMR Secretariat and the
EU Commission DG TREN on 27 and 28 November. Steve Taylor, Aberdeenshire,
drafted the recommendations.
The members of the group had been
requested to provide input to the TEN-T revision by two mails from the
Co-ordinator dated 5 and 18 November 2003. Only Maria Larsson, Dennis
Freeman and Jon Halvard Eide responded to the call for written inputs. Wim
Stubbe provided an oral contribution to the Co-ordinator. Relevant NSC and
CPMR General Assembly resolutions from 2002, and a NSC GA resolution on the
TEN-T revision from 2003 served as the political basis for the
recommendations. Dennis Freeman presented the NSC recommendations at a
meeting of the CPMR Intercom group on Transport in Brussels on 4
- 5 December 2003 in the presence of EU Commission representatives
and other CPMR Commissions.
The Co-ordinator informed that the
NSC recommendations had been integrated in a technical note from the CPMR
Secretariat in Rennes. The note was distributed to the participants at the
meeting and may be downloaded from the CPMR web page, under ”transport”
http://www.cpmr.org/. The Political Bureau of the CPMR (Board) is on this
basis expected to adopt a common CPMR position on the TEN-T in March.
The Co-ordinator also
informed that the NSC had recently received a response to the TEN-T
recommendations from the DG TREN official in charge of the TEN-T revision. A
paper copy of this response was distributed in the meeting and is also
attached to the minutes.
The meeting endorsed the
TEN-T recommendations and suggested that they should be distributed (in some
form and language) to the relevant political authorities in all NSC member
regions. It was also proposed that the recommendations should be distributed
to the Transport Ministries in all NSC countries as was done with the White
Paper response in 2002. The states are important in this respect because
they must endorse and fund 80 - 90 % of the costs of TEN-T projects.
Follow-up
The NSC Secretariat is requested to
distribute the TEN-T recommendations among the papers for the NSC Executive
Committee meeting in Ringkøbing on 26 March.
- All group members should distribute the recommendations to the
relevant political bodies in their home regions
- One group member from each country should distribute the
recommendations to the Transport Ministry (or equivalent) in each NSC
country as follows:
-Denmark: Brian Sørensen
-Sweden: Maria Larsson
-UK: Chris Kutesko, Dennis Freeman
-Germany: Hans Jorgen Hett
-Netherlands: Marjolein Zwerver
-France: Nathalie Mandaron (NSC
contact person in the new member region in Nord Pas de Calais
-Norway: Jon Halvard Eide
- The Co-ordinator distributes the final CPMR resolution/decision on
the TEN-T to the group as soon as it is available
Invitation to a joint Baltic Sea -
North Sea seminar on ”Motorways of the Sea”
The Co-ordinator informed that he
had received an invitation from his counterpart in the Transport group of
the Baltic Sea Commission (BSC) to a joint Baltic - North Sea seminar on the
“Motorways of the Sea”, in Klaipéda, Lithuania 8 - 9 March. An updated
invitation was handed out at the meeting. A similar event was organised by
the Atlantic Arc Commission on 13-14 January in Bordeaux, France (see CPMR
web page). The primary aim of
the seminar is to discuss what the concept of Sea Motorways should include
in terms of infrastructure and services (ships, port infrastructure, rail
and road links etc.) The target
groups for the seminar will in addition to the members of the transport
working groups for the Baltic Sea and the North Sea Commissions be
representatives for other organisations working with transport challenges in
the areas (e.g. Council of Baltic Sea States, Union of Baltic Cities),
representatives for relevant transport projects (Baltic Gateway, Northern
Maritime Corridor etc.), port authorities and other infrastructure owners,
ship owners, forwarders etc. The
invitation (also for speakers) will in addition go to the European
Commission, the CPMR Secretariat and national transport ministries
/governments.
The meeting endorsed the initiative
to stage a MOS seminar and found it to be interesting also in relation to
the group’s future work on sea transport. However it was felt that the
time frame could be too short to attract sufficient participation.
It was suggested that the regions of
Västra Götaland and Aarhus should represent the NSC
at the seminar due to their location in between the North Sea and
Baltic Sea and size. The Co-ordinator informed that expenses for travel and
accommodation could be supported by the group budget.
Follow-up
- Bengt Wennerberg and Brian Sørensen consider whether they or other
relevant representatives from their regions are able to attend the
MOS-seminar in Klaipéda on 8 - 9 March, and inform the Co-ordinator thereof
as soon as possible
- The Co-ordinator informs his counterpart in the BSC Transport group
of the conclusions from this meeting
- The Co-ordinator keeps the group informed about the further
developments on this issue, including updated programmes and information on
travel and accommodation.
General NSC information
Executive Secretary Henrik Jensen
from the NSC Secretariat in Viborg gave an update on current NSC issues.
- NSC General Assembly in
Gothenburg 16-18 June 2004
The programme for the General
Assembly will be sent out in a couple of weeks (ca. end February).
The NSC has been granted status as
observer to the OSPAR convention on behalf of the CPMR. Three NSC groups
(Economic Development, Environment and Fisheries) are now trying to work out
a common NSC position on the guidelines. It is however not realistic to
assume that the NSC would be able to change the guidelines.
The next meeting of the Executive
Committee is taking place in Ringkøbing Amt, Denmark, on 26 March. The
meeting will be preceded by a Thematic Meeting on 25 March.
- Interreg 3B North Sea Programme
The next call for proposals opens on
2 February and ends on February. 72 % of the total funds have now been
allocated. Priority 1 (Transnational spatial development strategies and
actions for urban, rural and maritime systems in the North Sea Region) have
been provisionally closed for future calls. Under measure 3.2 (Innovative
promotion of natural assets and cultural heritage) only projects addressing
sustainable tourism for the whole NSR will be considered.
It has been indicated that the
Interreg Secretariat for the remaining 3B funds will give priority to
”strategic projects”. Possible applicants are advised to take an early
contact with the Interreg Secretariat in Viborg in order to sound out their
project ideas as the threshold of being approved is increasing. There are
probably not more than 2 -3 calls left under the North Sea Programme.
ICT event in co-operation with the
NSC Economical development group and the Education & Research group
The event was originally scheduled
for 3 - 5 March in East Lothian, Scotland. The over all theme of the event
is the use and significance of broadband and ICT developments for rural and
regional development. An invitation with
draft programme and registration form was distributed by a mail from the
Co-ordinator of 16 December. The group was also encouraged to come up with
suggestions for keynote speakers and workshop leaders on the topics
identified in the draft programme. The members have furthermore been
requested to forward the invitation to relevant institutions (companies,
universities etc.) in their region.
Henrik Jensen gave an update on the
event on the basis of the last meeting of the Economical Development group
in Viborg 21 - 22 January. It turned out that only 5 - 6 persons had
registered for the event, and nobody from the Transport group. It seemed
that the draft programme had been too general in order to attract sufficient
interest. There is apparently also a need to have speakers on board by the
time of invitation in order to sell the event to NSC members and other
stakeholders within the business community and education system. The
Co-ordinator of the EDG is now going to redraft the programme to suit a
smaller scale event. A decision
would have to be made within few weeks about whether to go ahead with the
event or not.
The Co-ordinator reminded to the
group about its previous commitment to this event and requested the members
to make an effort to ”sell” the event to regional stakeholders on the
basis of the revised programme in the pipeline.
PS Latest: The Co-ordinator of the
Economical Development group has after the meeting (1 February) suggested to
postpone the ICT event until later this year due to the low interest. She
asks whether we should look at a more focused aspect of ICT & broadband
and also consider a different format, such as a joint working seminar
between the NSC groups involved.
Follow-up
- The members are requested to consider the issues raised by the EDG
Co-ordinator.
- The members are also requested to promote the idea of a NSC ICT event
to relevant stakeholders in their region, and ask them to provide
suggestions for topics and speakers.
Letter with update on the work of
the NSC Transport group - Promotional letter
At the previous meeting of the group
in Gent on 10 September 2003, it was decided that the group should take some
initiatives in order to attract new members - for instance by informing
currently non-attending NSC members about the work of the group and inviting
them to join. A draft letter was distributed to the group on 31 October. A
final letter signed by the Chairman was distributed on 22 December to all
NSC members not currently active in the Transport group.
Follow-up
- The group should keep non-attending NSC members currently informed
about the work of the group.
- Depending upon the response to the above-mentioned letter, the group
should also consider the organisation of visits to potential members.
Update of Interreg 3B project bid -
SustAccess
Maria Larsson gave an update on the
SustAccess project (previously “SusTrans”)
The work is currently being
co-ordinated by a Swedish consultant (Mail: info@terranordica.com)
The acronym stands for
”Sustainable Accessibility between hinterland and gateway cities around
the North Sea” The central aim of the project is to improve the
accessibility between rural areas and hinterlands and gateway cities around
the North Sea by promoting and by delivering sustainable transport
solutions.
The following partners have
indicated a willingness to participate in the project: Västra Götalandsregionen,
Sweden (lead partner), Aberdeenshire, Perth, Harwich and Southend – UK,
Kortrijk- Belgium, Sluis – The Netherlands, Weser-Emsland region –
Germany, Padborg transport centre – Denmark, Västra Götalandsregionen ,
Municipality of Falköping, Västtrafik, Municipality of Lidköping,
Trafikkontoret Göteborg, – Sweden, Vest Agder– Norway
Possible partners: Aarhus (Den) and
Edinburgh (UK)
The overall structure of the project
will be:
1. Project management
2. Development and pilot projects:
Two strands with a number of
sub-activities, incl. pilot projects:
a. Passenger transport
b. Freight Transport
3. Dissemination:
Newsletters, website and the
arrangement of three conferences about sustainable transport (as a follow-up
of the North Sea Commission conference in Aarhus in 2002)
Time frame: June 2004 - June 2007
Status and progress for the
application
-Partner meeting in Gothenburg on 9
December.
-A draft project description was
submitted to the Interreg Secretariat for pre-assessment on 15 January
-There will be a meeting for
interested partners in Gothenburg on 6 February in order to decide on the
final application
-An application will be submitted
before 25 February
-Start up conference in Gothenburg
on 14 -15 June if the application is approved
Amila Duka, 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 it should be explored
whether it would be feasible to organise this as a common event with
SustAccess project, or possibly the NSC.
The meeting 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). Such a joint event would be both cost effective and serve to
reach a broader target group than each project separately.
Any other business
Additional Vice Chair
At the meeting of the NSC Executive
Committee in Bergen on 27 October, Mr. Tor Ottar Karlsen, County Mayor in
Buskerud, Norway, was appointed as additional Vice Chair of the Transport
group. The group congratulates Mr. Karlsen with his appointment and is
looking forward to see him at the next meeting in Kristiansand.
New member
The Co-ordinator has been informed
that the region of Nord Pas de Calais in France (new member of the
NSC since October 2003) would like to join the NSC Transport and
Communications group. The region has been given core information about the
work of the group (cf. letter referred to above) and is currently working to
mobilise a regional transport expert.
Next meeting
Kristiansand, Vest-Agder,Wed. 26 -
Thurs. 27 May 2004 (from lunch day 1 to lunch day 2)
Bengt Wennerberg and Maria Larsson
informed that it would be difficult for them to attend this meeting.
The group is encouraged to suggest
items/themes for the meeting.
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