Brussels, 21/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc have announced that the prime ministers from the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia) agreed on a regional core network for transport when they were in Brussels on 21 April.
The ministers thus agreed on eleven road route projects, eight rail route projects, three waterway projects, two sea port projects, four inland port projects and on projects involving the capitals' six airports. The next step will be to prioritise the projects. “The plan is to make the first steps towards prioritising the projects”, at the Ten-T days in Riga at the end of June, Bulc stated. “This is necessary to be able to plan the resources for the coming years”, she said.
Hahn stated that the EU was ready to contribute up to €130 million to the projects in 2015, funds from the pre-accession instrument (IPA), and up to €1 billion in the coming years (see EUROPE 11284). (Camille-Cerise Gessant)