The press conference marking the successful completion of the project “Twinning Assistance to the Ministry of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Implementation of the Law on Railways”, implemented within the EU programme CARDS 2005, was held in Sarajevo on 26 March 2008. French Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Planning and Development and Estonia as the junior partner implemented the Twinning Project, which had begun on 3 July 2006.
In the course of the Project, Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH has improved its capacity to deal with EU integration issues and to manage the railway sub-sector, in particular policy-making and its implementation. The specific objectives of this Twinning Project, also successfully accomplished, were to provide targeted assistance to the BiH Ministry of Communications and Transport to implement the Law on Railways of BiH and to identify, adopt, and implement the Acquis provisions related to the railway sub-sector.
On behalf of the European Commission Delegation to BiH, Mr. Andre Lys, Head of Operations, congratulated the participants on successful completion of the Project whose relevance also lays in the fact that BH railway infrastructure was over 50 years old. Mr. Lys explained how vital it was for BH authorities to continue their work in this field, particularly to complete recruitment process within the Railway Regulatory Body. Furthermore, he underlined that it was important to resolve the appointment of infrastructure managers, and to continue further harmonisation with the EU Acquis, as a priority under the European Partnership document. Mr. Lys concluded his address by saying that the European Commission Delegation to BiH would remain committed to this assistance in the railway sector.
The most concrete result of this 21-month long project is that the implementation of its findings and conclusions will allow BiH to be in line with the “First Railway Package” of the EU Directives concerning railway. Mr. Guy Bennatar, Project Leader, said that it was up to BiH to implement the Second Railway Package in particular concerning the issues of railway safety, while the Third Package would be prepared in the course of 2008.
Minister of Communications and Transport of BiH, Mr. Božo Ljubić gave an overview of the Project and stressed out that special software for railway registers was obtained and installed in the Railway Regulatory Board. He explained that all relevant subjects were trained and provided with the experts’ assistance in the railway sector and expressed his hope that experience obtained through this Project would enable “our experts to easily transfer EU Acquis in the railway sections and undertake necessary reforms as one of the obligations defined with SAA.”
The European Commission Delegation to BiH supported the Project with 1 million€.
