Connecting Europe Days 2024 and Ukraine
Connecting Europe Days 2024, Europe’s mobility flagship event, took place on 2-5 April in Brussels, Belgium.
PASCALE-PROJECTS.COM was present as a member of the EU-Solidarity Lanes Matchmaking Platform for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Connecting Europe Days 2024 brought together more than 3,200 participants from over 80 countries. Participants included Ministers, politicians, financial institutions, industry representatives, transport stakeholders and the European Commission and related agencies. The topics discussed included concrete measures and exchange good practices on creating a sustainable, smart and resilient, transport and mobility network in Europe.
This year the opening session has been prepared by a special Session on Ukraine held by EU- Solidarity Lanes.
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/eu-solidarity-ukraine/
https://eu-solidarity-ukraine.ec.europa.eu/eu-assistance-ukraine/eu-ukraine-solidarity-lanes_en
The completion of TEN-T is also ever more relevant from a geopolitical perspective. Recent events have evidenced weaknesses in the EU’s transport connectivity. Brexit for instance revealed Ireland’s reliance on the UK Landbridge to have easy and fast access to the EU mainland. This served as a reminder of the importance to develop sufficient alternative transport routes to avoid potential disruptions in the EU’s supply chains for essential goods.
More recently, the European transport network has been facing significant challenges in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This war revealed several shortcomings in the European transport system and, most notably, in relation to our connections with Ukraine. In particular Ukraine’s exports by land faced limitations as a result of insufficient border crossings, saturated roads, and the differences in rail track gauge.
While the EU acted quickly to launch Solidarity Lanes, these need to be made permanent through the extension of four TEN-T Corridors into Ukraine. This should provide more robust transport alternatives in the longer run.
“In light of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Baltic Sea – Adriatic Sea Corridor is more important than ever for military mobility to respond to crises emerging at our borders and beyond. CEF co-funds dual-use transport infrastructure in the entire Union, and it is crucial that these investments are accelerated with a reinforced budget to al- low for the swift and efficient movement of goods, passengers and our armed forces.”
