TRACECA Program - Reconstruction of the historical Silk Road
TRACECA Program has been created as an intergovernmental program, as a component of the financing program TACIS, European Commission program for C.I.S. (Community of Independent States, divided from the former U.S.S.R.), equivalent to the financing program PHARE for the states of Central and East Europe.
To date, the European Union (EU) has focus attention on consulting projects and investment projects for "The New Silk Road" TRACECA program. The main attention is for road and rail networks. A list of technical assistance and investment projects is at the link: http://www.tacistm.org/Traceca/Traceca%20table%20of%20projects1.htm
The goals of the TRACECA Program:
- Building up the necessary priers for development of the TRACECA corridor as an alternative to the North TransSiberian route
- Unification of the TRACECA corridor with the European transport networks (TEN)
- Support of the political and economic independence of the former CIS, and afterwards, also of the states-participants to the Basic Multilateral Agreement on international transport for development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor
Brief history
TRACECA Program has been created with the occasion of the Bruxelles Conference from 3 May 1993, were had participated ministers of transport and commerce from 8 states, 5 states from Central Asia: Kazakhstan Republic, Kyrgystan Republic, Tajikistan Republic, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan Republic, and, respectively, 3 states from Caucasus region: Armenia Republic, Azerbaijan Republic and Georgia. At this Conference had been signed an agreement for implementation of Technical Assistance Program financed by European Union for development of the transport corridor on West-East direction from Europe, crossing by Black Sea to Caucasus and Caspian Sea with an exit to Central Asia.
In 1996 year had been accepted in TRACECA program Ukraine and Mongolia, afterwards Moldavia, and in 2002 Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey at the Conference in Tashkent, April 24-25 (Second Annual Conference of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA).
Multilateral Documents - TRACECA Program
On September 8, 1998, took place in Baku (Azerbaijan Republic), International Conference for Rehabilitation of Historical Silk Road.
On this occasion had been signed "Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor" and its technical annexes (on Road Transport, on Rail International Transport, on International Commercial Maritime Navigation, on Customs and Documentation Procedures).
The Basic Agreement was signed by 12 states: Armenia Republic, Azerbaijan Republic, Bulgaria Republic, Georgia, Kazakhstan Republic, Kyrgystan Republic, Moldova Republic, Romania, Tajikistan Republic, Turkey Republic, Ukraine, Uzbekistan Republic.
Regarding The Basic Agreement, Romania had the following reservation: Appendix 2 To Technical Annex on International Railway Transport it is not applied for Romania, meaning that:
- Will not grant preferential terms and tariffs up to 50 % discount on the full current tariffs for transport of goods by railway, except on preferential tariffs existing in relevant agreements and contracts;
- Will not grant up to 50 % reduction on the full current tariffs, for transport of empty wagons by train ferry,
Reservations to the Basic Agreement also had the following states: Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
The objectives of the Basic Agreement are:
- To develop economic relations, trade and transport communication in the regions of Europe, the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea and Asia;
- To facilitate access to the international market of road, air and railway transport and also commercial maritime navigation;
- To ensure traffic safety, security of goods and environmental protection
- To harmonize transport policy and also the legal framework in the field of transport
- To create equal conditions of competition between different types of transport