INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

CFR – SA’s attending agenda for the international reunions during 10 May – 10 June

 

    10 – 12 May 2000 - The Information Forum of the World Council of the International Railways Union (Uic) and the annual session of the Information Committee of the UIC took place in Estoril (Portugal). The session was presided by Vasile Olievschi, technical director at CFR – SA and now, president of the Information Committee of the UIC.
    11 – 12 May 2000 – The fifth reunion of the SECI (South Europe Cooperation Initiative) – “Reducing the frontier transit time within the SECI region” took place in Sofia (Bulgaria), under the aegis of SECI.
    13 – 19 May 2000 – In Budapest, under the slogan “Europe needs railway men,” the 52^nd congress of the International Association of the Railway Esperantists (IFEF) took place. Among the themes that were debated were: editing a railway terms dictionary in 16 languages, including 15000 words established by the UIC and analyzing various reports and information about problems or latest news on railway technique, among which, safety measures when crossing a railway.
    22 – 25 May 2000 – A series of manifestations took place in Antalya (Turkey) within the South – Eastern Europe Railways Group (SERG) that included the Reunion of the General SERG Directors and the Assistants Group Reunion. On behalf of CFR –SA, a delegation led by Viorel Simut, General Manager of CFR – SA attended.
    29 May 2000 – In Arad took place the Trilateral Reunion CFR – MAV – OBB that united delegates from Romania, Austria and Hungary and had as central theme the issue of improving the international railway links between Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest, along the 4^th Corridor.
    31 May 2000 – the members of the International Railway Union (UIC) Representatives Group met in Paris to prepare materials that will be examined within the UIC Active Members Assembly on June 29 in the capital of France.
    3 – 8 June 2000 – In Iasi there were organized the Railway European Days; a biannual meeting of the European Railway men Association (AEC) of which a “section” is the Romanian Railway men Association (AFEROM). Over 70 delegates participated on behalf of the other 13 sections and, of course, there were many representatives from Romania also. During the closing festivity, the leaders of the Romanian Section gave the German Section, the organizing party for the next meeting, the insignia of the European Days (a pennant, a key and a railway lantern).
    5 – 9 June 2000 – In Varna (Bulgaria) took place under the UIC aegis, the seminary “Relations between state and railway within the professional training project for PECO (Pays Europeen Central Oriental) countries and the ISC countries (Independent States Community).” On behalf of CFR, a delegation attended, led by Vasile Olievschi, Strategy Manager at the CFR – SA, who presented a report on restructuring the Romanian railway system.
    5 – 9 June 2000 In Riga (Latvia) took place the 28^th session of the Ministers Council within the Inter-Railway Collaboration Organization (OCCF) that was preceded by the OCCF Empowered Representatives Reunion dedicated to preparing materials and projects for the session of the Ministers Council. Viorel Simut, General Manager at CFR – SA, led the participating Romanian delegation.

International telegrams

• Within the EEC –UN, the South Europe Cooperation Initiative (SECI) was created to elaborate and finance projects for the countries in the Southeast of the continent. This European organization has as subordinate the Project 4 – “Developing the transport infrastructure along the most important international routes,” coordinated by the Transport Division of EEC – UN.
  For the realization of a more fructuous collaboration on an European level, under the aegis of SECI, the fifth reunion of the work group took place in Sofia, Bulgaria with the objective: “Reducing the frontier transit time within the SECI region.”
  The main purpose of this project is upholding the No.284 Resolution of the Interior Transport Committee of the EEC – UN, that recommends a maximum transit time of 30 minutes for each frontier station, thus – no longer than 60 minutes when crossing a national border.
  The participating countries to this meeting will insure the European requests. At the reunion, aside from representatives of EEC – UN, were also invited delegates from Romania, Hungary, Greece and Turkey and they analyzed the route Sopron – Lokoshaza (Hungary) – Curtici – Bucharest – Giurgiu (Romania) – Sofia (Bulgaria) – Saloniki (Greece) and the branch - Giurgiu – Istanbul (Turkey).
  The order of the day of the meeting included a few extremely important items such as establishing information regarding the circulation, composition, procedures and documents that have to be forwarded before a rain arrives at a common frontier border. Following this procedure, railway administrations, custom offices, sanitary sections and frontier police are to be informed in due time, to insure the verification of the transports as soon as they were forwarded by the neighboring station, thus limiting the amount of time trains have to spend at the border.
  The second important point of the meeting was to establish the parameters of the information system for the mutual transmission of the databases regarding the information that have to be forwarded before the trains arrive at the borders.

• During the Information Forum of the World Council of the International Railways Union (UIC) that took place on May 10, 2000 in Estoril (Portugal) was discussed the development of a good railway logistics sector by realizing an integrated information platform. Representatives of transport companies from all over the world made presentations at the reunion.
  In Estoril also took place the 11^th of May, 2000, the annual session of the Informatics Committee of the UIC.
  The order of the day included the following points of interest:
      - Presentations of the Informatics Committee’s activities in general and for particular activity sectors: Merchandise, Travelers, Infrastructure, EDIFER (the railway messages standardizing office), HERMES (network for implementing informatics railway applications on an international level);
      - Presentation of the general activity of the UIC;
      - General Management E-commerce and Internet club;
      - Shared databases: materials, ENEE and CODIRAIL (UIC projects);
      - Status of the UIC files, managed by the Informatics Committee.
  The Estoril activities continued on May 12^th with the seminary “Best informatics experiences outside the railways (constructors – caterers)” handled by the UIC Informatics Committee with the support of CP.
  The works were supported by representatives of France Telecom, European automotive industry and the Air Transports Worldwide Association (SITA), an organization created with the help of air transport companies.
  All Estoril reunions were presided by Vasile Olievschi, Technical Director with the CFR – SA, acting as president of the UIC Informatics Committee for 1999 – 2002.

• During the works of the Assistants Group and the Southeastern Europe Railway General Managers Group (SERG) that took place in Antalya, Turkey between the 22 – 25^th of May 2000, delegates participated from BDZ Bulgaria, CFR Romania, CH Greece, CFARYM, JZ Yugoslavia, TCDD Turkey. On this occasion they signed the “Memorandum of understanding for the collaboration of members railways, to reduce the transit time that trains have to spend at borders and the improvement of railway transport safety.”

• The 28^th annual session of the Ministers Council (CM) of OCCF member countries united in Riga (Latvia) the ministers of transport and general managers of railways members of the OCCF or representatives of those from 22 countries from the Central and Eastern Europe and also from Asia.
  Between 5 – 7 June2000, empowered representatives of the OCCF members agreed on the materials and decision projects of CM.
  According to the OCCF Status, CFR become a member of the CM beginning with January 1^st 1993, when SNCFR received the rights and obligations that belonged to the Transport Ministry as a member of the OCCF. Presently, CFR – SA insures the SNCFR succession within the leadership of international organizations that it was a member of.
  A Romanian delegation also participated at the Riga conference, led by Viorel Simut, who also represented UIC acting as Vice-president.
  The order of the day for the 28^th CM session was as follows:
      - A report concerning OCCF activity for 1999
      - The Revision Commission report for 1999-
      - The results of the proposals regarding the building of high speed railways in the OCCF member countries
      - The status of the “Accord regarding the organization and exploitation aspects for combined transports in Europe – Asia.”
      - The results of the inter-departmental conferences of customs, railway, frontier and transport ministry offices regarding the issue of reducing the time trains have to spend at the national borders.
      - the results regarding the status of the first stage and projects for the second stage of the ESCATO project – regarding the developing of the railway transport of containers with trains on the Asia – Europe routes.
      - The results of the EEC – UN project regarding the procedures for customs transit for international railway merchandise transports
      - The results of the temporary workgroup regarding the strategic issues on developing and perfecting OCCF
      - OCCF activity Program for 2001 and the next years
      - Budgets for the OCCF Committee – the final one for 2000 and the preliminary one for 2001.
      - Modifications in the OCCF managers
      - The preliminary order of the day, date and place for 29^th session of CM.

Following the debates, this resulted:

• reports regarding OCCF activities and financial status of the OCCF Committee for 1999 were approved
• the budgets for the OCCF Committee were approved (the final one for 2000 and a preliminary one for 2001)
• results of the works related to creating high speed railways in all countries, members of the OCCF were also approved
• members of the OCCF were advised to develop as a priority the containers transports routes between Europe and Asia
• the OCCF members were also advised to actively collaborate with frontier authorities to insure the reduction of the transit time for trains crossing national borders.

On the same occasion, the temporary workgroup for the strategic problems of developing and perfecting OCCF was given the task of continuing their efforts regarding the new structure and basic tasks of the OCCF offices and also considering new applicants for OCCF membership.

Silvia Mitulescu
In collaboration with the CFR – SA International Relations Office