Leaders from eleven countries in the region ended a two-day summit in Riverton on Thursday with a set of joint guidelines for the coming year, promising faster rail connections, a shared fund for natural disasters and closer coordination on energy supplies.
The final declaration, published after talks ran two hours past schedule, is not legally binding. But diplomats said it sets concrete targets that each government will be asked to report on when the leaders meet again next fall.
Trains, power and floods
The most detailed commitment concerns rail. The countries agreed to carry out joint border checks on international trains by the end of next year, so passengers no longer wait while officers board on both sides of a frontier. Travel time between Riverton and the capitals of two neighboring countries could fall by more than an hour.
On energy, governments pledged to share data on gas storage and electricity reserves each month and to notify one another before planned outages of cross-border power lines.
The leaders also agreed to set up a regional emergency fund of 150 million euros for floods, wildfires and earthquakes. Contributions will be based on the size of each economy.
Last spring’s floods showed us that rivers do not stop at borders. Neither should help.
Elena Marković, prime minister and summit host
Doubts over money
Not everyone was convinced. Several delegations asked for more time before committing to the fund, and the declaration leaves the exact contribution of each country to a meeting of finance ministers in the spring.
“The direction is right, but declarations are cheap,” said Oskar Brandt, a researcher in regional affairs at Elmbridge University. “The test will be whether the trains actually run faster a year from now.”
At home, the opposition Progress Party said the government should explain how much the fund would cost taxpayers. The foreign ministry said the country’s share would be roughly 14 million euros, spread over three years.
What comes next
Transport ministers are due to meet in Port Alden in January to agree on a timetable for the joint border checks. Officials said a first pilot could start on the night train between Riverton and a neighboring capital before the summer.
Comments 0