Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
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Corridor founders
The corridor was founded in 2004 by the MoU signed by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo as well as the European Commission. Croatia withdrew
from the MoU after joining the EU in 2013.
Transport plans are incorporated in national strategies and plans
SEETO secretariat encourages and supports members with establishing national transport plans.
Generally speaking, hard- and soft infrastructuremeasures are proposed by themembers to the SEETO
secretariat and evaluated according to the SEETO priority projects methodology24. If a project is
incorporated in national strategies, there is a higher chance for it to be accepted as a priority project.
An extra incentive relates to the fact that most Western Balkan nations are applying for EU
membership. For accession, they require to implements EU transport policies. Hence, the members
incorporate EU plans in their plans to accelerate the accession process. After signing the Transport
Community Treaty in 2017, the member states are more obliged to carry through the reforms as set
out in multi-annual action plans by SEETO.
Memorandum of understanding/agreements signed by countries
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the participants in 2004 for the development of the
South Eastern Europe (SEE) Core Regional Transport Network. The Annexes contain the scope of the
network as well as the working principles of the secretariat. In 2005, a Memorandum between Serbia
and Montenegro and SEETO was signed on the establishment of the SEETO headquarters in Serbia. An
addendum to the MoU was signed in 2007 between the participants specifically for the railway sector.
The aim of the addendum was to implement institutional changes to gradually open-up the market of
railway transport. The Transport Community Treaty was signed by five members in June 2017 at the
Trieste summit in Italy, after which Bosnia-Herzegovina signed the treaty in September 2017.
3.2.3 Legal framework
Legal basis
Objectives of SEETO are laid down in the MoU of 2004 and 2005 and the addendum of 2007. The legal
basis of SEETO secretariat is in accordance to the national law of the country in which it is situated,
Serbia. With the recent adoption of the Treaty on establishing a Transport Community, the participants
are encouraged implement a variety of European acts applicable to road transport, rail transport,
maritime transport, inland waterway transport and the transport sector listed in annex I the treaty.
Harmonization of national regulations, standards and procedures
The regional or national transport policy measurements to be carried out by the member states are
set out in the Multi-Annual Action Plan published by the SEETO secretariat. The plans contain a set of
soft infrastructure measures which are eligible for financing and implementation. Since recently, the
member states put extra attention into address soft infrastructure measurements. Upon recognizing
that non-physical barriers at border crossings and along the corridors significantly hinders further
development of the corridor, the members adopted a soft measure management plan established by
SEETO in 2015 at the summit in Vienna. The list was updated in the 2018 Multi-Annual Action Plan,
and includes the following topics:
 Rail Market opening;
24 lso see
for
updated version.