Closing Meeting of the “Technical Assistance Project for Supporting the Directorate General of Transport Services” Was Held in Ankara
In parallel with the liberalisation process in the
railway sector, the "Supporting
DGRTS Project", which aims to strengthen the administrative capacity
on safety, interoperability, and regulatory functions for effective
harmonisation with the EU acquis, came
to an end. In line with this purpose, many activities were organised, and more than forty legal and technical
documents were prepared within the scope of the project, which provides
economic, fast, safe, and high-quality railway transport services with minimum
negative impact on the environment by improving the competition conditions in
the sector.
The closing meeting of the project, where all these
works were presented to the public, was held on 15 September 2022 at Ankara
JW Marriott Hotel. The opening speeches of the meeting hosted by the Directorate General of Regulation of
Transport Services were made by Burak
Aykan, Director General for EU and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of
Transport and Infrastructure, Murat
Baştor, Director General of Transport Services, and Göktuğ Kara, the Transport Sector Manager of the EU Delegation to Türkiye.
Project Team Leader Tibet Seyhan carried out a presentation on the project
outputs at the meeting.
More than 40 technical and legal documents were
prepared during the project.
With the works carried out, the Draft Railway Law,
which will create the legal framework of the sector in line with the EU, and 7 draft technical regulations were
prepared to eliminate the identified gaps. Apart from these, 17 guidelines/checklists considering
the current practices of the EU were prepared or renewed, 5 Best Practice Guidelines, 13 legal gap analyses or strategy
reports were prepared to reveal the differences with the EU.
Many activities were carried out within the scope of
the project.
For railway infrastructure and train operators, 1 conformity assessment and 3 inspection
activities were carried out with the participation of DGRTS staff and
project experts, more than 200 participants were trained on various subjects in
11 training organisations, 2 workshops
were organised with more than 200 participants and 6 study visits to EU member states were carried out.
As a result of
all these studies, a significant progress has been achieved in the
harmonisation of the railway sector and legislation in Türkiye with the EU. In
the coming period, with the finalisation and publication of the draft studies,
it is envisaged that the regional and international importance of Türkiye in
the railway sector will increase significantly and its position in railway
transport between Europe and Asia will be further strengthened.
About the
Project
Within the scope of the EU-Türkiye Financial Cooperation IPA II (2014-2020) period Transport Sectoral Operational Program, "Technical Assistance Project for Supporting the Railway Safety and Regulatory Functions of the Directorate General for Regulation of Transport Services” has started on 04.08.2020 and will officially end on 04.11.2022. The project, which the overall budget is approximately 2.3 million Euros and the contracting authority being the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Directorate General of EU and Foreign Affairs, Department of EU Investments, has been funded by the EU and Republic of Türkiye. The project has been implemented by the technical assistance of the consortium led by Piri Group.