Prospects of drafting Black Sea Ring Highway Master Plan

1. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of drafting Black Sea Ring Highway Master Plan Anastasia Athanasiadou Head of Contracts & Bids Unit, International Project Department “EGNATIA ODOS S.A.”

2. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan The Black Sea Ring Highway (BSRH) is approx. 7.700 km long,serving as the linkage between the Trans-European Transport Networks and the Euro- Asian transport links

3. The implementation of the BSRH is considered as the flagship transport project of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation of the Black Sea (BSEC), along with the development of Sea Motorways in the Region BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan

4. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan Thus the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of BSEC proceeded with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of the “BSRH”. (April 2007, Belgrade)

5. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan BSRH Steering Committee “To execute the BSRH Project, the Parties agree to establish the BSRH Steering Committee holding its sessions at least once per year, immediately before or after the session of the BSEC Working Group on Transport. The BSRH Steering Committee, supported by the Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat, formulates the BSRH development policy and decides on all relevant measures for its realization.” - Article 3 of the Memorandum of Understanding -

6. A major part of this highway consists of existing roads of various categories. The main target is to create an international road artery, through maintenance, reconstruction, rehabilitation, upgrading and construction of non-existing connections of the main and secondary road infrastructure. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan

7. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan Once the alignment of the highway is finalized, many of its sections will coincide with parts of the established European and Euro Asia transport linkages

8. to strengthen regional cooperation and facilitate exchanges between the BSEC countries, Europe and Asia to facilitate economic and social development of the region by providing services of an adequate quality, ensuring safety, speed and comfort to make transport flow efficiently through intermodality, interoperability and other technical or administrative measures to include BSRH in the Network for extension of the major Trans European Transport axis and the Euro- Asian Transport Networks BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan Main objectivesof the BSHR project within the framework of the MoU:

9. define at least the: BSRH alignment technical standards and norms to be used the level of services to be provided border crossing procedures and transport operations, minimizing non-technical barriers II) and set a clear strategy for the implementation of its objectives BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan In order for the above to be succeeded the BSRH steering Committee must:

10. Drafting a Master Plan is one of the top priorities for the strategy of the organization BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan

11. As Key points of the MP could be considered the following: set a consistent and realistic short- medium and long term investment strategy on the road. Set a framework for the Categorization of the various parts of the road using commonly accepted methodology and taking into account alternative scenarios of growth, economy, trade and transport trends, as well as bottlenecks. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan

12. Create an Inventory of legislative issues that should be harmonized Identify possible Funding sources Investigate possible PPP agreements Create an Inventory of Border Crossing issues and propose actions for improvement Investigate the development of ancillary infrastructure along the Highway BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan

13. A Master Plan should not just be a wish list of desired investments, but rather one tailored to a realistic assessment of likely available funds. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan

14. The prospects of drafting a Master Plan for BSRH can be summarized as follows: BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan • Coordination of thinking and improvement of collaboration among the experts of the concerned countries • Establishment of priorities for individual projects, that have been identified through examination • Identification of possible funding sources • Maximum effectiveness of transport infrastructure

15. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan The final alignment of the main route will be hopefully determined at the next meeting, according to the MoM of the 6th meeting, held In Rostov-on-Don, 27 September 2011. Taking into account the data provided to the JPTS until now, the situation is depicted as follows:

16. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan

17. BSRH Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat Prospects of Drafting BSRH Master -Plan