First Baltic Sea - Black Sea - Aegean Sea Corridor Forum, Brussels
date: 30/01/2025
The forum brings together countries along the eastern flank of Europe, from Cyprus to Finland, to promote regional integration, connectivity, and military mobility.
The meeting was chaired by Mr Herald Ruijters, Deputy Director-General (DDGHR) of the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), who emphasised the strategic importance of the corridor and the need for collaboration among stakeholders.
The discussion highlighted the need for greater cooperation with other forums to align efforts on financing, projects, and working groups, including a proposed working group on alternative financing for transport projects. Member State representatives provided updates on national transport master plans, emphasising the importance of collaboration, investment needs, and keeping plans as living documents. Ensuring continuity in cross-border infrastructure projects and avoiding gaps or overlaps was also stressed.
The Forum also featured a series of keynote presentations:
- Mr Nicolai MINDRA, State Secretary for Road Infrastructure, Moldova, delivered an update on Moldova's progress and plans related to its transport network and alignment with the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
- Mr Serhii TERESHKO, Deputy Head of the Mission of Ukraine to the EU, highlighted the strategic and political importance of Ukraine's integration into the TEN-T and emphasised the role of the Baltic-Black-Aegean Sea corridor in Ukraine's connectivity.
- Ms Lotte LANKVELD, the Adviser to the European Coordinator for the Baltic Sea-Black Sea-Aegean Sea European Transport Corridor, outlined the political priorities of the new Commission in the transport sector.
- Mr Marcin GASIUK and Mr Diego GRIPPA from CINEA presented the results of the 2023 CEF Transport call, gave an overview of the investments until this day – looking at CEF 1 and 2 – on the BBA ETC and looked ahead outlining the main features of the 2024 Transport call.
Furthermore, State representatives discussed key infrastructure projects and challenges in their respective countries, focusing on transport resilience, cross-border connectivity, and military mobility. They emphasised the strategic importance of ports, rail, and road networks, highlighting major initiatives such as Rail Baltica, Via Baltica, and connections to Ukraine and Moldova. Several speakers addressed challenges related to electrification, interoperability, and climate resilience, while others stressed the need for increased freight capacity and improved international cooperation.
