Via Carpatia
The Three Seas Initiative is an economic and political project that originated in 2015. It was put forward by Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, then President of Croatia, and Andrzej Duda, President of Poland. Sometimes it is also called the ‘ABC Initiative’, where ‘ABC’ is the acronym of the Polish names of the seas enclosing the region. The twelve participants of the Initiative are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.
The aim of the Three Seas initiative is to boost the economic development of its members by expanding the network of connections in the power sector, infrastructure and digital services. Poland, together with Croatia and Hungary, is one of the pioneers in the implementation of key projects and currently takes part in ten such projects, the construction of Via Carpatia being one of them.
Via Carpatia is a new transnational communication route connecting the eastern countries of the EU from Klaipeda in Lithuania to Thessaloniki in Greece and farther on to Istanbul, Turkey. The road will pass through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The first declaration concerning Via Carpatia had been signed even before the Three Seas Initiative came into being – in 2006 in Łańcut by ministers of transport of Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary. The project gained momentum after the Three Seas initiative was born. In 2018, ministers of transport of the Via Carpatia transit countries applied to the European Commission to include the Via Carpatia project in the trans-European transport network programme TEN-T aimed at the development of roads, railway, waterways and airways. As many as 5 out of 9 TEN-T corridors are passing through the Three Seas countries, including such major corridors as Baltic-Adriatic, Rhine-Danube and North Sea-Baltic Sea.
The construction of Via Carpatia tallies with the process of strengthening the economic and territorial cohesion of the region. The project is intended to eliminate disparities in the development of infrastructure in Europe. According to the declaration of governments of the 3SI states, completion dates for national sections of the route are: 2022 in Hungary, 2023 in Slovakia, and 2025 in Poland. The most important Polish section will be the S19 expressway of the length of 580 km, passing through Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, Lubelskie and Podkarpackie voivodships.
Via Carpatia will function as the ‘spine’ of the Three Seas region. Its branches will also reach the port of Constanta in Romania and the city of Svilengrad in Bulgaria, stimulating the development of regions not directly situated along the route. In the territory of Poland, the course of Via Carpatia coincides with a fragment of Via Baltica leading from Poland through Lithuania and Latvia to Tallinn in Estonia. This will make it the major communication axis of the Baltic states.
Via Carpatia will be one of the topics addressed during the Local Government Economic Congress of the 2nd Three Seas Initiative Forum to be held between 29 and 30 June 2021 in Lublin. Apart from obvious economic benefits and infrastructure development, Via Carpatia also offers the opportunity for the promotion of tourism in the Three Seas region. During the Congress, international specialists will present best practices of the tourist industry in the 3SI countries and propose innovative solutions related to the promotion of tourism products. The participation of local governments of the 3SI countries in the Forum will make it possible to exchange experiences, make regional co-operation closer and strengthen and improve the joint policy of the region in the field of tourism.
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