ITF High-level dialogue for Ukraine 2024.
April 10th, 2024.
The High-Level Dialogue (HLD) for Ukraine 2024 continues the series of the ITF ministerial gatherings dedicated to mitigation of the impact that the Russian aggression in Ukraine has had on Ukraine’s transport infrastructure as well as on transport routes within the immediate region of Europe and around the globe.
The war and its consequent disruption of supply chains, as well as the constant hindering of Black Sea routes and land border crossings with Ukraine have led to higher transport costs, and delays, impacting transport and economic activities. The Ukrainian economy has suffered its steepest decline in the country’s recent history (decrease by 29.1% in 2022 according to the World Bank). This has affected not only the regional neighbourhood of the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea, and the Black Sea, exposing the lack of the sufficient transport infrastructure capacity to deal with the challenges of the situation, but also the consumers of Ukrainian agriculture products all over the world. This situation has contributed to increased food insecurity, especially in the countries and regions farther afield.
The European Union (EU) Solidarity Lanes, aimed at creating alternative transport corridors and ensuring international food security, brought improvement in Ukrainian exports and imports. The total value of trade via the Solidarity Lanes since May 2022 has been estimated by the European Commission at around EUR 139 billion, with around EUR 46 billion for the Ukrainian exports and around EUR 93 billion for the Ukrainian imports. The new Black Sea corridor set in 2023 led to a partial recovery of the Ukrainian grain export, yet this corridor remains subject to Russian attacks. However, land transport routes remain the essential alternatives when exported and 2 imported goods cannot be shipped via the Black Sea. The development of more resilient infrastructure has been encouraged by the extension of the EU Trans European Transport Corridors (TEN-T) to the territory of Ukraine and Moldova. This has allowed for mapping two land corridors between the EU and Ukraine: the Baltic-Adriatic-Black Sea Corridor and a new alignment of the North Sea-Baltic Corridor.
The international community stood up to the need for an effective investment plan for transport and logistics infrastructure to achieve a resilient and, at the same time, sustainable, integrated, and multimodal transport system in Ukraine. Several initiatives to assist the reconstruction have been launched, providing necessary, but uncoordinated support.
Providing a collaborative framework for the continuation of the ITF’s work to help Ukraine’s transport recovery, the new initiative – the Common Interest Group for Transport in Ukraine (CIG4U) was launched in December 2023.
The CIG4U was established by the ITF member-states Canada, Lithuania, Sweden, and Ukraine, and aims at ensuring specific, sector-oriented recovery based on the vast know-how and global experience of the ITF. The initiative proposes two major mechanisms of support: co-ordination of assistance for Ukraine’s immediate transportrelated material needs and providing analytical support for the longer-term rebuilding of Ukraine’s transport links.
The objective of this HLD is to progress commitment and action towards the targeted goals and deliverables of the CIG4U’s platform. The HLD will feature presentations of the transport and infrastructure needs identified as urgent and long-term by the Ukrainian government, as well as discussions on coordinating the support for Ukraine based on these priorities within the international transport community.
The discussions will also cover the efforts of the European Union’s and the broader international community’s plans to assist in building new transport links and corridors with, for, and in Ukraine, including but not limited to the EU TEN-T transport network with Ukraine. Underpinning the goal to reinforce the ITF community’s engagement in fostering Ukraine’s transport recovery, the event will provide other ITF member countries, international organisations, and the private sector with a valuable opportunity to join the ITF CIG4U activities and make pledges to the projects identified by Ukraine, elaborated in the CIG4U concept note.
Location: Trakai, Lithuania.
The war and its consequent disruption of supply chains, as well as the constant hindering of Black Sea routes and land border crossings with Ukraine have led to higher transport costs, and delays, impacting transport and economic activities. The Ukrainian economy has suffered its steepest decline in the country’s recent history (decrease by 29.1% in 2022 according to the World Bank). This has affected not only the regional neighbourhood of the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea, and the Black Sea, exposing the lack of the sufficient transport infrastructure capacity to deal with the challenges of the situation, but also the consumers of Ukrainian agriculture products all over the world. This situation has contributed to increased food insecurity, especially in the countries and regions farther afield.
The European Union (EU) Solidarity Lanes, aimed at creating alternative transport corridors and ensuring international food security, brought improvement in Ukrainian exports and imports. The total value of trade via the Solidarity Lanes since May 2022 has been estimated by the European Commission at around EUR 139 billion, with around EUR 46 billion for the Ukrainian exports and around EUR 93 billion for the Ukrainian imports. The new Black Sea corridor set in 2023 led to a partial recovery of the Ukrainian grain export, yet this corridor remains subject to Russian attacks. However, land transport routes remain the essential alternatives when exported and 2 imported goods cannot be shipped via the Black Sea. The development of more resilient infrastructure has been encouraged by the extension of the EU Trans European Transport Corridors (TEN-T) to the territory of Ukraine and Moldova. This has allowed for mapping two land corridors between the EU and Ukraine: the Baltic-Adriatic-Black Sea Corridor and a new alignment of the North Sea-Baltic Corridor.
The international community stood up to the need for an effective investment plan for transport and logistics infrastructure to achieve a resilient and, at the same time, sustainable, integrated, and multimodal transport system in Ukraine. Several initiatives to assist the reconstruction have been launched, providing necessary, but uncoordinated support.
Providing a collaborative framework for the continuation of the ITF’s work to help Ukraine’s transport recovery, the new initiative – the Common Interest Group for Transport in Ukraine (CIG4U) was launched in December 2023.
The CIG4U was established by the ITF member-states Canada, Lithuania, Sweden, and Ukraine, and aims at ensuring specific, sector-oriented recovery based on the vast know-how and global experience of the ITF. The initiative proposes two major mechanisms of support: co-ordination of assistance for Ukraine’s immediate transportrelated material needs and providing analytical support for the longer-term rebuilding of Ukraine’s transport links.
The objective of this HLD is to progress commitment and action towards the targeted goals and deliverables of the CIG4U’s platform. The HLD will feature presentations of the transport and infrastructure needs identified as urgent and long-term by the Ukrainian government, as well as discussions on coordinating the support for Ukraine based on these priorities within the international transport community.
The discussions will also cover the efforts of the European Union’s and the broader international community’s plans to assist in building new transport links and corridors with, for, and in Ukraine, including but not limited to the EU TEN-T transport network with Ukraine. Underpinning the goal to reinforce the ITF community’s engagement in fostering Ukraine’s transport recovery, the event will provide other ITF member countries, international organisations, and the private sector with a valuable opportunity to join the ITF CIG4U activities and make pledges to the projects identified by Ukraine, elaborated in the CIG4U concept note.
Location: Trakai, Lithuania.