RIGA - Euopean transport commissioner Jacques Barrot has been visiting the Baltics to outline plans to develop transport infrastructure in the region.
Speaking in Riga Sep. 11, he said "I very warmly welcome Latvia's commitment for taking the transeuropean rail baltica project one step further to reality. This project is highly symbolic because it will constitute a north south link that will link the people of Scandinavia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland eventually with a high speed train. The corridor will also serve growing freight demands resulting from continued economic growth in your countries."
But the commissioner also drew attention to one of Latvia's less proud achievements 's its appalling road safety statistics.
"Unfortunately today, Latvia's track record for road safety is still below the community average with a death toll of 177 fatalities per million inhabitants. Upgrading of road infrastructure will contribute considerably to avoiding such fatalities.
"Reducing the number of deaths on the roads is a top priority for me. Member states experience shows that a determined policy, such as in Sweden for example (49 fatalities per million) can make a difference. Europe has set itself the ambitious target of halving the number of deaths on European roads by 2010. This is not an issue for the regulator 's this is an issue that requires the determination of us all."
After stressing the EC's commitment to sustainable transport and biofuels, Barrot then made reference to the organization's "permanent transport dialogue with Russia" and the prospect of reducing the lines of trucks permanently stationed at border crossing points.
"At last year's meeting Mr Levitin [Russian transport minister] and I agreed to create a special working group of commission, member states and Russian experts to examine the problem and make recommendations. The group, produced its recommendations in June, such as a reduction in border bureaucracy, are already being discussed with the Russian authorities within the different working groups of the permanent transport dialogue and within the working group of the commission and Russians customs services."
The previous day, Barrot delivered an almost identical speech in Tallinn, using Estonian references and statistics in place of Latvian ones. Both speeches were notable for the phrase "Brussels is not the faraway ivory tower that some pretend!"
