Start of negotiations for the draft text Protocol on Sustainable Transport and Infrastructure to the Carpathian Convention (WP 7)

From 18 to 19 October 2012 the Carpathian Convention Working Group on Sustainable Industry, Energy, Transport and Infrastructure Meeting was held in Košice, Slovakia. The meeting was organized by the Interim Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention (supported by UNEP Vienna) in strong collaboration with the European Academy Bolzano (EURAC) and its Vienna Office. The Working Group (WG) aims at supporting the Parties to the Carpathian Convention towards their cooperation for the implementation of Articles 8 (Sustainable Transport and Infrastructure) and 10 (Industry and Energy) of the Carpathian Convention, the concrete objective of this meeting was to foster the development of the draft text Protocol on Sustainable Transport and Infrastructure to the Carpathian Convention. The next meeting of the WG is scheduled for beginning of 2013 with the view of further elaborating the draft text of the Protocol. It is envisaged to have the final draft text of the Protocol by the end of 2013 with the view of presenting it to COP4 of the Carpathian Convention (to be hosted in 2014 in Czech Republic).

The WG will benefit from various available results, e.g. past and ongoing experiences and results throughout implemented projects such as “Access2Mountain” (funder under SEE Programme) or the “Carpathian Project” (former CADSES Programme). One concrete outcome of this strategic project was the study (including recommendations) on the transport system in the Carpathians elaborated under the lead of European Academy Bolzano (EURAC) that will serve as direct input to the meeting.

This event enjoyed the technical and financial support of the European Transnational Cooperation South East Europe Programme project ACCESS2MOUNTAIN and contributes to as well as benefits from the European Regional Development Fund. The Working Group meeting was held back to back with the ACCESS2MOUNTAIN Midterm Conference organized by the Rzeszow Regional Development Agency together with the Environment Agency Austria, that took place at the same meeting venue from 16 to 18 October 2012.

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