Towards a Common Surface Transport Policy for South East Europe

This paper addresses the all-important issue of forming a common transport policy for South East European countries with primary objective this of the re-balancing the future traffic flows towards more use of rail and maritime transport (including inland waterways). First, the elements of the new EU transport policy that address this issue are mentioned. Then, the paper examines in detail the specific factors that apply in the region of South East Europe and which may alter or influence the expected results of the application of these factors. The factors examined are the following: improving the infrastructure of the railways, various measures of promoting transport by sea and inland waterways, turning “intermodality” into reality, building the trans-European transport networks, adopting a common policy for charging for transport, utilizing research and innovation technology, implementing medium and long-term transport related environmental objectives, implementing transport-related “soft” measures.The last section of the paper examines in more detail the status and prospects of improvement of two major rail axes in the area, the axes nr. X and nr. IX. This is given as an example of the kind of actions needed to improve rail infrastructure and the involved substantial efforts that are necessary.