On the road to the UfM Ministerial Conference on Transport: UfM Ad-Hoc Senior Officials Meeting
Barcelona, 10 May 2022 – In view of the next UfM Ministerial Conference on Transport to be held in Cairo on 3 October 2022, and following the conclusion of the preparations at the technical level within the UfM Regional Platform on Transport Connectivity, a UfM Ad-Hoc Senior Officials Meeting on Transport convened online on 10 May 2022. The meeting brought together representatives from the Ministries of Transport as well as from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of UfM Member States, and representatives of several Directorates-General of the European Commission, including DG MOVE and DG NEAR.
The meeting presented and discussed the draft Declaration that the Ministers would endorse during the Ministerial Conference, as well as the next steps in the run-up to the conference. UfM Member States provided comments on the proposed draft Declaration. In closing, the UfM Co-presidency joined UfM Deputy Secretary General Ergen in thanking all the participants for their contributions to the draft Declaration, which ensures the co-ownership of this drafting process.
The upcoming Ministerial Conference on Transport builds on the acquis of the previous Ministerial Conference on Transport (Brussels, 2013), and in addition to the final Ministerial Declaration, the conference will also consider for endorsement two other deliverables, namely the new Regional Transport Action Plan (2021-2027) and the Evaluation Report of the previous Regional Transport Action Plan (2014-2020).
The UfM Ad-Hoc SOM was co-chaired by the UfM Co-Presidency, represented by Harvey Rouse, Head of Unit for International Relations at the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), European Commission and by Naim HASSAN, Under-secretary of the Jordan National Railway Project Director, Ministry of Transport of Jordan. Erdal Sabri Ergen, Deputy Secretary General for Transport and Urban Development and Francesc Carbonell, Head of Sector for Transport represented the UfM Secretariat in the meetings.