Railways from the South-East Europe Region organised their annual meeting (the group has been a UIC Special Group for several years now).

MAV’s two-year chairmanship terminates at the end of this year, following which OBB will assume chairmanship for the period 2011-2012.

Mr. Miklos Andrasi, CEO of MAV SA, opened the session. He noticed that the effects of the financial and economic crisis are ceasing to be felt at the Hungarian railways and therefore positive trends in traffic growth have started to be observed since the start of the year.

Each G4 member gave a similar report, with the conclusion that full recovery following the impact of the crisis in 2008/2009 lies ahead. CER representative Mr. Mussini then took the floor, presenting CER’s figures related to the impact of the crisis on European railways. Following his report, as UIC representative, Jerzy Wisniewski, UIC Director of Fundamental Values, described the recent developments at UIC to the audience, with a broad explanation of the role of the Fundamental Values department within UIC HQ.

The bilateral discussions between the G4 members began by looking at the problems related to border crossing procedures, exchange of wagons and locomotives and some inconsistencies on the rolling stock acceptance interpreted differently by the local railway regulators.

Finally the meeting was concluded with the signing the MoU on the mutual support of procedures for putting into operation railway vehicles in neighbouring countries, and they supported the EU initiative for the development of the Danube Region - moderated by OBB.

The G4 Group needs the support of UIC and CER. It expects more technical involvement and advice from UIC (on projects, studies and R&D solutions) and a lobbying push vis-à-vis the EC.

The meeting was attended by the directors Mr. Andrasi (MAV), Mr. Bereny (HUNGARAIL), Mr. Szekely (GYSEV), and Mr. Kovac (RAIL CARGO HUNGARIA), as well as representatives from HZ, SZ, ZSR and ZSSK.