engleski

Cross Border Cooperation and South Eastern Europe Transport Grid

It is in EU’ s own interest to number stabilization and development of the South Eastern troubled region among its high priorities. Sound development, stabilization and prosperity in this region in its own right rely heavily upon possibility and reality of establishing cross border cooperation among the countries in the region. Cross border cooperation means in the first place free movement of people and goods and opening of internal markets. Neither could be successfully achieved without open transport markets and developed physical infrastructure. Fairly developed communications from railways in the 19th century modern highways in the first part of the 20th century, to airway transportation in the middle of the 20th century and the virtual electronic information superhighway at the end of the 20th century are both the condition and the consequence of the accelerated progress of developed market economies. In that sense countries of South-Eastern Europe are facing serious internal and external constraints. Internalities are concentrated on the physical infrastructure underdevelopment. Countries of South Eastern Europe have to compensate for a slow and inefficient railway network, to make good for omitted motorization and a poor road network and to catch up with the global internet network. There is no way for a modern market economy to operate without these classical and new infrastructures. Therefore, it is a very complex task for these economies to establish a market-friendly environment that would endorse private initiative and entrepreneurship Externalities are concentrated on the EU "white spot" policy towards the traffic network in the region of the South Eastern Europe. Although there is EU policy documents published that could be considered as opposite to this notion, dynamic analysis of the publicly known EU transport strategy especially priorities would show enough facts that could confirm the strategy of partial traffic isolation of the region of South Eastern Europe, as far as the EU long term policy is concerned. In this paper we tend to display arguments that would speak in favor of establishing South Eastern Europe Transport Grid, as a flywheel of not only cross border cooperation and the stabilization of the region but as an economically sound business project.

cross border cooperation; south eastern europe; transport grid

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