IRF and the European Commission inaugurate cycle of safety engineering workshops

Brussels, Belgium – Addressing an audience of over 100 transport professionals gathered in Skopje for a two-day workshop jointly organised by IRF and the European Commission, Mr. Mile Janakieski, Minister of Transport and Communications of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, outlined his ambition to bring road engineering closer to European standards.

Mr. Janakieski stated that South East Europe had established “a vision and concrete projects” to develop their transport infrastructure backbone and confirmed the region was eager to implement European policies and know-how as it moved closer to the European Union. This point was confirmed by Mrs. Slavjanka Petruseva, General Manager of the South East European Transport Observatory (SEETO), who unveiled plans to provide technical assistance to public authorities in such areas as road safety audits in answer to persisting road accident trends.

The seminar, which included specific sessions on European policies, legal aspects, road equipment standards and deployment strategies, was attended by over 100 public and private sector delegates from the entire West Balkan region. The event was punctuated by numerous exchanges of case studies and closed with a field visit to ongoing construction works on Skopje’s future ring road.

In the course of 2007 five more workshops will be held in various locations across Europe (Poland, Romania, Hungary, Turkey and Lithuania) to offer selected stakeholders the possibility to acquire valuable information on road safety engineering and a platform where to share best practices. These workshops are the result of a joint partnership between the International Road Federation – Brussels Programme Centre and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enlargement (TAIEX instrument). Interested members with expertise in Road Safety Engineering who wish to find out how they can participate in these events are requested to contact the IRF Secretariat in Brussels on www.irfnet.eu

Full workshop proceedings available from http://www.erf.be/section/safer_roads