Third stakeholder meeting in Constanta
On the 12 of August 2024 Constanta Metropolitan Area Intercommunity Development Association organized the third stakeholders meeting in Constanta in the framework of SPOTLOG, a project funded by the INTERREG Europe Program. The main objectives of the event was to present to the local, regional and national stakeholders the SPOTLOG project, with a special focus on Constanta`s activities and target in the project and also to present the general framework of SUMP implementation in Romania and some best practice examples of different projects implemented within this framework, and to benefit from the experience other stakeholders have in preparing the national policy in the field or working on the update of their SUMPs.
Among the participants were representatives from the National Government (Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration and Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Investments and European Projects), the National Federation of Metropolitan Areas, from local public administration, representative form Bucharest – Ilfov Transport Authority (that are in the process of updating their SUMP) and from Ovidius Constanta University, different NGOs and private sector representatives (especially urban mobility start-ups), including the coordinators of EIT Urban Mobility in Romania.
The meeting started with some insightful presentation regarding the new urban context elements for the metropolitan development presented by the representative of the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, showcasing the newly adopted Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, the Nature Restoration Law and the upcoming No net land take until 2050, Soil Monitoring Directive.
Afterwards the SPOTLOG project was presented with a focus on the objectives Constanta partners are aiming, respectively to update its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. In this context, the SUMP updating methodology was presented and the discussions continued with the presentation of the methodology used by Bucharest – Ilfov Transport Authority in updating their strategy, with a special focus on the logistic sector.
One of the most relevant issue regarding the development of the Bucharest – Ilfov SUMP related to logistics was the lack of data and the lack of cooperation of logistic stakeholders, that can constitute a real problem in understanding and planning of this sector. As a good practice example the EIT Urban Mobility presented a good practice example implemented by Brasov City, ICEBERG and RAPTOR regarding the goods distribution inside the City center area with cargo bikes, with the aim of testing the solution and to gather data in the real environment.
These presentations constituted the perfect framework for an opened dialogue among all participants related to the SPOTLOG thematic, and the barriers and opportunities in the field of logistics planning.