Cooperation - Mazowieckie Biuro Planowania Regionalnego w Warszawie

Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor

The Baltic-Adriatic Transport Corridor is an initiative whose primary goal is to strengthen strategic links between countries and regions on the North-South axis by improving their transport accessibility, intensifying transportation and promoting new directions for the movement of people and goods.

The importance of the North-South transport axis, on which there has been invariably lively trade for several hundred years, although difficult to overestimate, has still not been sufficiently appreciated. With Poland’s integration into the EU came the chance to decisively strengthen the rank of existing connections. Decisive for the whole idea was the year 2009, in which initiatives for interregional cooperation undertaken for the realization of the VI Pan-European Transport Corridor gained the desired momentum and dynamics. On October 6, 14 regions representing Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia Austria and Italy signed an agreement for the “immediate realization of the North-South rail corridor” (Gdansk/Gdynia – Warsaw – Brno/Bratislava – Vienna – Bologna); in turn, on December 3, 9 regions representing Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria signed a joint declaration confirming the European and regional importance of the Gdansk-Brno-Vienna highway axis.

Another important date was June 23, 2010 when representatives of 7 Polish voivodeships: Pomeranian, Kuyavian-Pomeranian, Warmian-Masurian, Mazovian, Greater Poland, Łódź and Silesian signed a letter of intent to strengthen interregional cooperation to create development conditions for the Baltic-Adriatic Transport Corridor in Poland. At the same time, the signatories of this agreement expressed the common view that the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor in the foreseeable future may become a key factor in the economic development of Poland and the regions located along its route.

Meanwhile, the culmination of all the efforts of numerous stakeholders to date was the establishment of the Association of Polish Regions of the Baltic-Adriatic Transport Corridor on March 30, 2012.

Among the statutory objectives of SPR KTBA were:

creating and promoting at home and abroad the development zone of the Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor delineated by the course of the A-1 highway and the E-65 and CE-65 railroad lines;Ensuring inter-regional consistency of strategic and spatial planning in the corridor zone in Poland;initiating projects for the economic development of the corridor zone, especially in its nodal points (initiating the establishment of logistics centers, intermodal terminals, special economic zones, etc.);monitoring of ongoing and planned transportation infrastructure investments (point and linear) implemented from public and private sources. The collected material is presented in the annual “Report on the status of work on the construction of linear and point infrastructure in the Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor zone in Poland”,initiating activities to raise the profile of intermodal transport in the corridor’s impact zone using the Vistula River waterway, rail transport and modern intermodal technologies.The Board of Directors of the SPR KTBA consists of – President of the Association Ryszard Świlski of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Government, as well as Aleksandra Banasiak of the Silesian Voivodeship Government and Marcin Bugajski of the Lodz Voivodeship Government.

Chairman of the Audit Committee is Leszek Ruszczyk, Deputy Marshal of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, while members of the Executive Committee on behalf of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship Self-Government are Tomasz Slawinski and Michal Hackiewicz from the Mazowieckie Regional Planning Office in Warsaw.

The location of the continental part of the Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor covers the area from the ports of Gdynia and Gdansk to the ports of the northern Adriatic, Italy and Slovenia, although branches of the corridor also reach the Aegean and Black Sea basins. The corridor is 1,700 kilometers long, while 55 million people from five EU member states live in the regions it crosses. The Scandinavian part of the corridor, meanwhile, includes a connection from Oslo to Karlskrona. The Swedish part of the corridor has been given the status of “Gdynia-Karlskrona marine highway.”

The Baltic-Adriatic international transport corridor, the filling of which in the territory of Poland is the A1 highway and the E-65 railroad line and the Central Railway Line, is of considerable importance in both national and European terms. The Community institutions gave expression to this fact by placing the Baltic-Adriatic corridor on the list of 30 priority projects of the Trans-European Transport Network TEN-T, and for the second time last October when, together with a section of the Rail Baltica corridor, it was included in the prestigious Corridor No. 1 in the proposal for a modified TEN-T network.

An additional gas pedal of intermodal transport in Poland, including on the north-south axis, will soon become rail transport corridors, which in European nomenclature are called Railway Freight Corridors (RFC) and should be designated in all EU countries by 2015. They will be established on rail lines primarily intended for freight transport. Infrastructure management in the corridors is to be integrated, and maintenance and transport standards unified. Two rail routes are likely to run through Poland, i.e. corridor No. 5: Gdynia – Katowice – Ostrava/Zilina – Bratislava/Vienna – /Clagenfurt – Udine – (Venice Bologna/Ravenna)/Trieste – /Graz – Maribor – Ljubljana – Koper/Trieste, and corridor No. 8: Bremerhaven/Rotterdam/Antwerp – Aachen/Berlin – Warsaw – Terespol/Kovno.

Peri-Urban Regions Platform Europe

The PURPLE Group was initiated in 2004 to bring together the regions of the European Union. Thirteen regions are members of the association: Catalonia, Flanders, Frankfurt am Main, Île de France, Mazovia, MHAL (Province of Limburg), Nord Pas de Calais, Randstad Region, Rhone-Alpes, Southeast England, Stockholm, West Mislands.

These regions are working together to maximize the benefits of their proximity to urban agglomerations. At the same time, initiatives are being carried out in these areas aimed at minimizing the negative impact of large cities on the rural-urban character, landscape and natural environment of these areas, the goal of which is to preserve their uniqueness.

The goal of the PURPLE organization is to develop appropriate methods to enable the sustainable development of European peri-urban (“peri-urban”) areas.

METREX – Metropolitan Regions Network

The METREX (Metropolitan Regions Network) organization, in operation since 2005, is a network of approx. 40 European regions and metropolitan areas, where key decision-makers can jointly share knowledge, experience and expertise in European metropolitan affairs.

The goal of the organization is to address the challenge of territorial cohesion in Europe and promote polycentric relationships (linkages) at the metropolitan level, aimed at creating a framework for a polycentric Europe and taking action in this direction.

The Mazovian Regional Planning Office has participated in three projects within the METREX organization:

InterMERTEX – a program studying similarities and differences in the organization of governance and spatial planning in European metropolises,PolyMETREX – RINA North – South Inerface, where the possibilities of cooperation between metropolises of the eastern wall of the EU were studied,

PolyMETREX – RINA Metropolitan Spatial Vision for Central Europe, which aimed to develop a concept for cooperation between the regions of Central and Eastern Europe and create a counterweight to the Pentagon.

ARC – Airport Regions Conference

Airport Regions Conference (ARC) – the main objective of this organization is to influence European air transport policy and activate regional and local authorities in this process. This organization was founded in 1999.Its members are primarily regions with the largest airports in Europe, viz: Vienna, Flanders, A.V.A.R., Tallinn, Vantaa, Ile de France, Bavaria, Frankfurt/Rhine, North Westphalia, East Attica, Lombardy, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Haarlemmermeer, `Sør-Gardermoen, Arad, Mures, Barcelona, Catalonia, Municipality of El Prat, Mallorca, Canary Islands, Gothenburg Region, Stockholm Malar, Zürich, Hounslow, Surrey, Renfrewshire, West Sussex.

ARC’s activities focus on organizing meetings and seminars, creating studies and projects, and conducting research and analysis on aviation topics and regional development. Membership in the ARC is based on substantive cooperation, involving the exchange of experience, information, organizing training, supporting regional planning and strategic programming. In practice, participation in the ARC provides an opportunity to share experience in the field of air transport and regional development and to provide contacts with individuals and institutions interested in cooperation in this area.

The Mazowieckie Voivodeship has participated in the ARC since 2006.

Rail Baltica Growth Corridor

Rail Baltica Growth Corridor is an international project whose main goal is to create, promote and publicize a rail link from Germany through Poland and the Baltic States to Finland. The project began on January 1, 2011 and was completed in early June 2013. The RBGC project was co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Baltic Sea Region Program, and its budget for 2011-2013 amounted to nearly €3.6 million.

The Rail Baltica Growth Corridor project was initiated to strengthen the competitiveness of the regions in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea Region by improving their transportation accessibility. In the dissemination of new, hitherto underused corridors for the movement of goods, passengers and capital particularly in the north-south direction, the project sees opportunities for the development of cities, private and public initiatives, and thus the improvement of the population’s living conditions. Under this ambitious challenge, it has succeeded in bringing together a wide range of diverse partners including those from the scientific, economic and political communities, creating an open platform of cooperation for the implementation of public and private initiatives within the Baltic Railway growth corridor.

In pursuit of highly ambitious but complementary and reinforcing challenges, the RBGC project work was divided into work packages (WPs). WP3 and WP4 involved questionnaire and study surveys of potential project stakeholders. In WP4, private sector stakeholders – transportation, shipping, communications companies and logistics centers – were analyzed, while in WP3, public sector institutions – city and regional governments and central government representatives responsible for transportation – were analyzed. The results of these analyses served as the basis for launching two pilot programs – WP5, within the framework of which a pilot communications information system was created, and WP6, aimed at strengthening interoperability and facilitating cooperation between logistics centers operating on the Rail Baltica link. The most important results and directions for future activities are summarized in the Rail Baltica Development Strategy, available for download.

In addition, a study titled: Study of the impact of the implementation of Rail Baltica on the logistics sector in the Mazovian Voivodeship, downloadable, was made from project funds. It is an attempt to identify favorable, potentially indifferent, or even unfavorable effects of Rail Baltica’s implementation on the economic development and entrepreneurship of the Mazovian Voivodeship. The information it contains allows one to look at the Rail Baltica project in the context of the region’s existing transport corridors, the existing logistics infrastructure and the scope of the transport tasks carried out by the two basic transport modes, road and rail, in their combination in the form of intermodal, combined transport.

More information about the stages of the RBGC project, as well as a database of articles and project materials, can be found at www.rbgc.eu.

PLUREL

PLUREL is an integrated project funded by the European Union’s 6th Framework Program. Thirty-one partner organizations from fourteen European countries and China are participating.

The aim of the project is to develop new strategies and planning and prediction tools that will be the basis for sustainable development within rural-urban relations in land use in the past.

On behalf of the EU’s 6th Framework Program, the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IGIPZ PAN) is participating in the program. The Mazovian Office of Regional Planning (MBPR) participates in the project under an agreement signed with IGIPZ PAN. MBPR Deputy Director Tomasz Slawinski has been elected chairman of the Stakeholders Board – the Council of Stakeholders of local government units of the participating regions.

CIVITAS.NET implemented under the URBACT program

The URBACT program was established by the European Commission in 2003. Its main idea of the program is to organize a network of European cities to increase the effectiveness of policies in alleviating economic, social and environmental problems in cities. The program places particular emphasis on spreading knowledge about integrated urban management and exchanging experience in this field.

Within the framework of this program, the Mazovian Regional Planning Office participated in the project CIVITAS.NET – The role of regions and metropolitan units in urban revaluation. The project was aimed at developing methods to effectively prevent the emergence of neglect and, where it occurred, methods for social activation and the creation of tools for improving regional and metropolitan policies in efforts to address declining urban areas by properly supporting local governments. The Working Group, led by the Generalitat de Catalunya, included the following regions: Mazovia (Poland), Glasgow and Clyde Valley (Scotland), Emilia Romagna (Italy) and the Hungarian government.

The work carried out within the framework of the Working Group allowed participants to familiarize themselves with the ways in which revitalization projects are being implemented in cities in other European regions. The analyses carried out identified the strengths and weaknesses of the revitalization projects presented, and in particular pointed out how regional authorities participate or should participate in the renewal of degraded urban areas. The experience gathered made it possible to develop appropriate conclusions so that regional participation in urban revitalization can become more efficient and effective.

The result of the joint work is the Final Report Civitas – A Regional Approach: The Added Value of Urban Revitalization, which describes examples of revitalization projects in member regions.

The program was implemented between October 2005 and May 2007.

Project NODUS

The NODUS project – in its initial phase – implemented under the URBACT II program.

Housing & Planning: integration of urban regeneration policies in the general regional development policies (Housing & Planning: Integration of urban regeneration policies in the general regional development policies).

Since mid-2008, MBRP has participated in the NODUS project – Housing & Planning: Integration of urban regeneration policies in the general regional development policies, which is a continuation of the CIVITAS.NET project. This project is being implemented under the URBACT II program. The theme of the project is the integration of urban revitalization policies into regional policies, relating mainly to housing, planning and transportation.

The Working Group is addressing the issue of how urban projects, carried out within the framework of revitalization programs, affect the balance of metropolitan and regional land use. It attempts to coordinate regional spatial planning with urban revitalization policies leading to strengthening the positive impact of urban, revitalization projects on regional development, and to maximize the positive impact of those regional policies that contribute (or could contribute) to the success of city-led revitalization activities. Conclusions and solutions developed as part of the project will be applied in drawing up (updating) future program documents of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, e.g. development strategy, spatial development plan or Provincial Program for the Care of Monuments.

The leader of the project is the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of the Region of Catalonia, Spain), the other partners taking part in the work of the project are: Emilia Romagna Region (Italy), the City of Amsterdam, the City of Katowice, the City of Dobrich (Bulgaria), and the Alba Iulia Region (Romania).

Substantive work is currently underway. In the project, four thematic areas have been identified, which each partner must discuss in detail based on the example of their experience. These topics are:

identification of the supra-local level of administration – identification of the administrative level that could be the basis for the development and integration of revitalization projects with regional spatial policy, identification of problem areas – identification of real indicators, universal for all cities/regions, for the designation of problem areas, designation of these areas and debate on the mechanisms and criteria for identifying these areas,topics of intervention programs carried out in problem areas – determination of the content of intervention programs necessary for implementation in the designated areas (internal integration of sectoral policies in a specific area),monitoring of the sustainable functioning of intervention activities – definition of mechanisms to control and guarantee the sustainable impact of interventions throughout the area, both territorially and functionally, allowing the creation of links to coordinate revitalization policies with spatial, sectoral and strategic planning.

At the same time, in accordance with the requirements of the URBACT II program, a Local Support Group was organized to help clarify needs and identify the best ideas and practices proposed for use in the project. Also, it verifies the work and results of the project during and after its completion.

The Mazovia Support Group consists of:

representatives of the Office of Housing Policy of the City of Warsaw,representatives of the Warsaw School of Economics from the Department of Investment and Real Estate,representatives of the City Hall of Minsk Mazowiecki,representatives of the Radom City Hall,representatives of the Revitalization Forum Association,representatives of the Office of the Marshal of the Mazovian Voivodeship in Warsaw from the Department of Strategy and Regional Development.

As part of the project, a Local Action Plan is being prepared.

The NSB CoRe project – North Sea Baltic Connector of Regions

The Mazovian Office of Regional Planning in Warsaw on behalf of the Regional Government of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship was participating in the NSB CoRe project – North Sea Baltic Connector of Regions. The project was financed in 85% from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. The total budget of the project is 3 307 648 euros, of which 140 000 euros were funds for the implementation of tasks of the Regional Government of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship. The project was implemented between May 2016 and April 2019.

The NSB CoRe project, led by the Helsinki Uusimaa Regional Council, was continuation of the Rail Baltica Growth Corridor project, which was implemented by the Mazovian Office of Regional Planning in 2011-2013.

The NSB CoRe project aimed to improve the sustainable accessibility of the Eastern Baltic Sea Region (EBSR) to freight and passenger transport. NSB CoRe focused its activities around the TEN-T core network corridor North Sea – Baltic, of which a key element is the E75 – Rail Baltica railway line. The project focused on supporting entrepreneurship in the corridor, creation and promotion of access points (railway stations and logistics centres) and spatial planning issues, including the use of the new TEN-T core network corridor North Sea – Baltic Sea to increase the capacity of metropolitan transport systems. Cooperation with the business sector and transport operators aims to increase interoperability and to contribute to the elimination of bottlenecks in border crossing areas.

The project involved 16 partners – cities, regions and institutions from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany and Finland and associated organisations – business support organisations and national ministries and agencies active in the field of transport and logistics. The Polish partners: the Regional Governments of the Mazowieckie and Podlaskie Voivodeships and the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing in Poznan. Other institutions involved in the project: the cities of Bialystok, Poznan and Elk, the CETC-EGTC Central European Transport Corridor Ltd. and the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and Development.

Meetings such as international conferences, workshops and on-site visits were the basic forms of activity and co-operation between partners in the NSB CoRe project. Moreover, individual studies and analysis were conducted; entrepreneurs and local government units were involved in cooperation in the survey research.

For the Regional Government of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship and the Mazovian Office of Regional Planning in Warsaw – as the unit responsible for the implementation of the project, NSB CoRe was an opportunity to study the effects of Rail Baltica investments on the Warsaw Metropolitan Area urban node.

You can find more information about the NSB CoRe project on the project page