Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director-General, participated in the G4 meeting, the special UIC regional group for the Danube-Adriatic region, comprising railway companies and infrastructure managers from Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, held on 20 October this year in Vienna, at the invitation of Christian Kern, CEO of Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB Holding-AG). The meeting brings together the director-generals and CEOs in order to address the main topics of infrastructure development which are crucial to the boosting of mobility in Central Europe, and serves as a platform for experience-sharing.
On this occasion several presentations were delivered, among others by a representative of the European Commission on the EU’s Strategy for the Danube Region (the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, EUSDR, is a macro-regional strategy adopted by the European Commission in December 2010 and endorsed by the European Council in 2011), as well as by the members with regard to developments within their organisations.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux gave a presentation to participants on the actions conducted by UIC vis-à-vis its European members, the various ongoing projects and answered all their questions.
One of the decisions taken by the G4 members was to collaborate more closely with the members of SERG (South-East Europe Railway Group) comprising Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and the Balkan networks in order to identify possible areas of common concern, with a view to addressing freight flows.
The meeting brought UIC even closer to its members and groups such as the G4 which seek to promote rail transport and major corridors. This meeting followed another meeting held previously with members of SERG and was an opportunity to highlight UIC’s efforts to establish closer ties with countries in Central Europe and the Balkans.
The day before the meeting, ÖBB organised a technical visit to the site of the new Vienna Main Station and the Bahnorama exhibition centre featuring a viewing platform, a topic covered in the article below.
