Governance of Major Transport Corridors Involving Stakeholders

Abstract

In this paper governance for developing main transport corridors in the European Union was examined by means of document- and literature studies. European Union transport policy documents were studied as well as legislation regarding development of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). One of the most strategic parts of the TEN-T, the Scandinavian – Mediterranean (ScanMed) transport corridor, was particularly studied with documents concerning the implementation of ScanMed. Qualitative content analyses have been conducted and three themes consisting of “governance organisation”, “actors” and “governance in practical implementation process” were studied. It was concluded that a broad range of stakeholders have to contribute in order to accomplish a well-functioning transport system. Accordingly the studied policy, legislative and implementation documents all concern governance matters in various ways. Depending on the actual transport initiative, and its objectives, stakeholder involvement can vary. A framework for governance arrangements for the most strategic parts of TEN-T, the Core network corridors is set in a regulation. A European coordinator was appointed for each Core network corridor and has an important role in facilitating the implementation. Such governance structure was already foreseen in earlier policy documents. Corridor forum is a new tool aiming to bring key stakeholders together for consultative purposes and in addition working groups can be connected to the Corridor forums. The policy and legislative documents have a focus on the responsibilities and activities for the European Commission and the concerned Member states. The importance of other stakeholders such as cities, ports, regional authorities, private actors is mentioned, but their activities are not explicitly stated in these formal European documents. However, participation of various stakeholders in the ScanMed Core network corridor implementation process is tangible, especially when concrete projects are discussed. Further, in the ScanMed Core network corridor implementation process the Corridor forum is explored as a new tool for bringing stakeholders together, progressively reaching an increasing number of stakeholders, including users of infrastructure in future stages. Encompassing eight countries and several modes of transport a large number of stakeholders are indicated. The idea of future ideas laboratories acting as meeting spots for development of the transport corridor on specific topics, and bringing a variety of stakeholders together, is interesting. A key challenge for future implementation of the ScanMed Core network corridor is the large number of stakeholders concerned by a transnational and multimodal transport system. Governance design to strengthen involvement of stakeholders in European transports initiatives such as the TEN-T should be encouraged. Suitable forums for cooperation and collaboration for inclusiveness for various actors need to be elaborated, where common overarching objectives need to be agreed upon. These forums have to be developed together with concerned stakeholders so that choice of forum is suitable due to its expected function. Key stakeholders which can actively contribute to progress and new ideas need to be connected to the process. And developed working groups, ideas laboratories and similar, on a geographical basis for parts of the corridor or for a specific topic, need to be adequately bridged to a European level.

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