Participants of the Carpathian Euroregion Transport Infrastructure Conference Appeal on the National Governments and Parliaments

October 29^th 2003

Participants of the international conference "Development of the Transport Infrastructure within the Carpathian Euroregion and its Impact on the Regions" addressed a manifesto to the governments and parliaments of the member countries. The event held on October 23 - 24 2003 was organized by Association Region Karpaty with the co-operation of the Kosice Self-governing Region and Association of the Carpathian Region Universities.

Insufficient development of the regions joined under the umbrella organisation Carpathian Euroregion motivated the participants from Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania to take this manifesto in writing. They claim this fact to be the reason of higher unemployment level and increasing number of work driven migration of the economically active persons. The experts focused on the importance of the transport infrastructure for the fully balanced and rapid development of the regions within the Carpathian Euroregion and on the necessity of preparation of the common strategy for prospective development in this field.

The participants in the manifesto appeal to the governments and parliaments of Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine:

1. to focus their attention on a road network development and especially on the motorway networks (TEN-T, TINA);
2. to start without any delay the construction of the motorway in the North - South direction (R 4: Rzeszow - Svidnik - Presov - Kosice - Miskolc - Debrecen - Oradea) and of the E58 motorway Baia Mare - Satu Mare - Vaja with interconnection to the Corridor M3;
3. to pay more attention to the motorway from Smilnytsya in Ukraine, to Palota, in Slovakia, which will help to develop a transportation network for the purposes of the tourism development in the Carpathian Euroregion;
4. to consider thoroughly combined transportation channels, specifically the connection of the Danube waterway (Bratislava) with 3rd European Transportation Corridor and to develop and support to a maximum possible extent the system of the combined transportation on the territory of the Carpathian Euroregion to achieve a more balanced distribution of freight transportation;
5. to support faster development of the air transport on the basis of the modernization of the infrastructure of major and minor airports (Kosice, Debrecen, Rzeszow, Lviv, Oradea, Poprad - Tatry, Uzhgorod - Mukacevo, Satu Mare, Baia Mare, Suceava);
6. to pay attention to the transportation on waterways as well as to the alternative means of transportation;
7. to prepare and utilize effective means of balanced regional development so as to stop negative trends that increase disparities between the regions and to create conditions for the process of elimination of the regions disparities at the same time.
8. to ensure that after the Hungarian, Polish and Slovak accession to the European Union the Schengen border on the territory of the Carpathian Euroregion will not have a negative impact on the contacts between the inhabitants of the Carpathian Euroregion and on the economic development of its territory and to eliminate gradually the legislative barriers for faster transportation of freights and passengers on the territory of the Carpathian Euroregion;
9. to consider introduction of special visa which would be free of charge, with at least one year validity, permitting multiple entry with duration of at least 100 days stood abroad, for the citizens of those countries of the Carpathian Euroregion, in which the visa were introduced;
10. to enable the private capital to be invested in the transport infrastructure development  on the basis of the "public-private-partnerships" so as to accelerate construction of the transport infrastructure in the regions of the Carpathian Euroregion;
11. to support financing, also from the EU funds, of the railway projects in the field of infrastructure and technology in the network of the trans-shipment stations, to preserve and support regional railway transportation on the territory of the Carpathian Euroregion and to support the process of integration of individual transportation modes as well as to further develop the railway connections and cross-border stations between the countries on the territory of the Carpathian Euroregion;
12. to pay higher attention to the modernisation of the railways and railroads, as a part of the supplement to the multimodal corridor R4 (Rzeszow - Presov - Kosice - Miskolc) and to accelerate the modernisation of the Pan-European Railway Corridor No. V.

Written by: Peter Karpaty and Sona Jakesova
Photos by: Bernard Berberich

The Association of the Carpathian Region Universities
Carpathian Euroregion