The first joint meeting of the UIC and Colpofer working groups on freight security was held in Paris at UIC HQ on 26 – 27 May in order to coordinate the work carried out in each group. The meeting was attended by European freight security managers (DBAG, DB Schenker, RCA, LDZ, PKP PLK SA, Trenitalia, SNCF, ZSSK Cargo and ZSR), Asian freight security managers (RZD and KTZ) and Railpol, the European network of police forces.

Colpofer acts as the European expert group within the UIC security platform. The Colpofer freight group addresses European topics such as the secure transport of dangerous goods based on RID/ADR Chapter 1.10, exchange of experiences regarding the information system and the creation of joint statements, while the UIC platform working group due to its global vocation organises its work on international corridors and focuses first and foremost on the improvement of railway freight transport security between Europe and Asia (E20-E30 corridors).

Following the presentations by both groups – G. Birkigt for the Colpofer group and V. Ternawski for the UIC platform group – each participant presented the main security problems in their company regarding freight transport and the prevention measures implemented. H. Fikar then gave an update on the status of development of freight corridors in Europe. Finally S. Vermeire, from ICSO (International Container Security Organisation), explained the joint UIC/ICSO/OSCE project involving a demonstration train to illustrate the benefits of the future custom union between Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and the impact of political decisions on freight efficiency: time saving at borders, security improvement, etc.

Following this fruitful meeting for both groups, the decision was made to continue joint activities and to hold alternate specific and joint meetings with ongoing exchanges of information.