The Delegation of the European Union to BiH/EU Special Representative Office commends the BiH Council of Ministers for the adoption of the BiH Framework Transport Policy (FTP) for the period covering 2015-2030, and we strongly encourage the BiH Parliamentary Assembly to take the necessary steps to have the Policy adopted as a matter of urgency.
Over the past years the European Union has given increasing importance to connecting citizens and businesses across the EU in order to promote sustainable economic growth. At the Western Balkans Summit, held in August 2014 in Berlin, the EU extended this drive also to the countries of the Western Balkans. Under this ‘Connectivity Agenda’, the European Union plans to invest EUR 1 billion in grants over the next five years in developing and interconnecting transport and energy infrastructure in the Western Balkans region, leading to further integration with EU member states. This financial assistance, coupled with an offer of further loans and investments, will be available to upgrade or construct parts of the Core Network for the region that was agreed by the prime ministers of the six Western Balkans countries at their meeting with Commissioners Hahn and Bulc in Brussels on 21 April.
For Bosnia and Herzegovina this Core Network includes the highway and railway along Corridor Vc and Highway 2a from Gradiska through Banja Luka – connecting with Corridor Vc south of Zenica. It also includes the Sava river ports of Samac and Brcko and the Sarajevo International Airport.
As a first step, already in 2015, more than 100 million EUR in pre-accession (IPA II) funds will be available for all countries, together with loan-financing from European financial institutions. For BiH, immediate project priorities focus on the construction of the cross border bridges at Svilaj (including border crossing) and Gradiska.
The adoption of the BiH FTP by the BiH Parliamentary Assembly is one of two immediate prerequisites for accessing these funds. In addition to the FTP, BiH will need to carefully select priorities and to explore all possible sources of funding through the recently established country investment committee. This committee needs to develop prioritised investment plans comprising the most relevant investment projects to be financed in the country (‘single project pipeline’), and the first deadline for review by international partners will be the 2015 Western Balkans Summit taking place in Vienna on 27 August 2015.
The adoption of this State-level Policy is not only essential for advancing BiH’s access to co-financing in 2015, it is also a prerequisite for drafting and implementation of the necessary BiH Transport Strategy pertaining to all transport sub-sectors, i.e. road, railways, intermodal and maritime transport. Only on the basis of such a country-wide strategy will the European Commission be able to co-finance further investments in BiH transport infrastructure under IPA II from 2016 on.
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