EU-funded project to help Ukraine and Belarus integrate with European Transport Network

The first joint meeting in Minsk on the 24^th of March 2009 was attended by representatives of the respective Belarus and Ukrainian Ministry of Transport, Road and Rail agencies, as well as Customs services, together with the European Commission Delegations representatives and the implementing team.

Mr Sergey Negrey, Head of Department in the Ministry of Transport of Belarus, welcomed the participants and elaborated on the situation in the transport sector in Belarus and the cooperation with Ukraine.

Ms Elena Gandzi, senior expert in the Ukrainian Ministry of Transport, answered on behalf of the Ukrainian Delegation.

Mr Jean Eric Holzapfel, Chargé d’affaires a.i of the European Commission Delegation in Belarus welcomed as well the participants, focusing on the bilateral character of the meeting as well as regional, with the Eastern partnership programme and the on-going cooperation between the EU and Belarus.

The State agencies’ representatives presented then the current situation in their respective States bodies.

The project implementing team set out its preliminary findings and submitted to the respective Beneficiary its work plan for the 20 months project life time and the next steps to come.

In the context of global crisis (trade turnover between the two Beneficiary countries is down 60% in last January compared to January 2008), the project “raison d’être” and relevance was underlined by the participants, as its trade facilitation component should contribute to a common approach and answer regarding economi c recovery in the two countries.

The project synopsis is attached in Annex 2. The Project Steering Committee, to be set-up in May, will be co-chaired by two Deputy Ministers of the respective MoTC. The first meeting of the Steering Committee is scheduled for next May, in Kyiv.