The speakers of parliaments of the countries along the Adriatic and Ionian seas, including Slovenia's Milan Brglez, welcomed the implementation of the EU strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian macroregion.
The 13th conference of speakers from the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative concluded in the city on the coast of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the adoption of a declaration voicing support for governments and other institutions in implementing the strategy, according to a report from the Croatian Hina agency.
The conference focused on connecting the region in bolstering sustainable tourism and the inclusion of parliamentary dimension in achieving the initiative's goals.
In his contribution to the discussion, Brglez said that better results in the region could be achieved through coordinated action, so Slovenia would be advocating and upgrading priority projects and transnational corridors from the Danube region in the Adriatic-Ionian and the future Alpine strategy.
He expressed Slovenia's interest in establishing motorways of the sea in the northern Adriatic which also include the Slovenian port of Koper, and the upgrade of the rail link from there into the country's interior.
"Our effort will be to have as much traffic, especially cargo, gradually shifted to the railways, considering that Slovenia has seen an enormous increase in transit traffic over the past decade," Brglez was cited in a press release from his office.
Speaking about the inclusion of parliaments in the efforts to achieve the goals of the Adriatic-Ionian partnership, Brglez said that "despite the uncontested role of parliaments in the macroregion, macroregional cooperation is primarily a process of inter-governmental cooperation".
He said though that the role of parliaments was to monitor, support and encourage the governments' activities and to call on them to report on their work.
Brglez met his Bosnian counterpart Šefik Džaferović on the sidelines of the meeting.
Founded in Italy's Ancona in 2000, the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative brings together eight countries along the Adriatic and Ionian seas: Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Italy and Serbia.
Source: SloveniaTimes
