15-16 March 2018, Slovakia, Bratislava. TRANSGREEN project was presented as an example of integrated transport planning process taking nature into account on a national and cross-national level, by project partner Prof. Finka from SPECTRA Centre of Excellence of EU – Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. Besides the technical steps proposed by TRANSGREEN, the presentation aims to bring the environment as a criterion to be considered for transport investment and to make a plea for more sustainable approaches of the OCED approach in transportation.

In mid-March 2018, Bratislava hosted an Expert Workshop on strategic investment packages as a support action for the development of national investment plans introducing examples of the best practice from France, Sweden and the UK.

The International Transport Forum at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) is an intergovernmental organisation with 59 member countries, which acts as a think tank for “transport policies that improve peoples’ lives”. Its mission is “to foster a deeper understanding of the role of transport in economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion and to raise the public profile of transport policy”.

In this context, Prof. Maros Finka, from SPECTRA Centre of Excellence of EU – Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava took part at the Expert Workshop on Investment Packages. His aim was to bring into discussion the environmental sustainability of transport investments and, thus, to complete the existing approach which focuses mainly on two out of three pillars of sustainable development: social and economic factors such as productivity, economic growth or welfare. To support this, he offered a concrete example and package of solutions from the Carpathian region as derived from TRANSGREEN.  

“Positive response of the participants wakes up optimism that the sectors can cooperate for meaningful measures for transport policies that improve not peoples’ lives but also nature’s survival/well-being” declared Prof. Maros Finka.

The outputs from the event should shed light on the decision-making tools that the governments could use to identify those infrastructural project that can strategically address regional challenges.