IONAS Fourth Meeting Report

IONAS Fourth Meeting Report

Koper, Slovenia, March 31rst – April 1rst 2006

The Fourth IONAS Project Meeting took place in Koper, Slovenia, from March 31rst to April 1rst, hosted by the two local partners, the City of Koper and the Port of Koper, in the PaetorianPalace, facing the main square of Koper, Titov trg. This meeting has been the occasion for the Port of Koper to join the project meeting not only as observer but as full partner.

The first day of the meeting was opened by the official talks – from the Koper side, by Jani Bacˇicˇ, Deputy Mayor of Koper, and Robert Cˇasar, President of the Management Board of the Port of Koper, and by Stefania Camuffo, representative of the Lead Partner, City of Venice.

The two main presentations of the first session were given by Bojan Suvorov, Secretary, Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Development (SVLR) and by Mauro Novello, Project Officer of the INTERACT Point Managing Transition and External Cooperation. Novello illustrated the role and the functions of this IP and the new opportunities for Cross Border Cooperation with the Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistence-IPA Fund to assist candidate and potential candidate Countries. Furthermore, Elena Ferrario of the City of Venice presented the IONAS project extension, welcoming the new Project Partners – Port of Koper and AICCRE – and introducing the foreseen actions.

With this 6-months extension, the IONAS Partnership becomes more oriented on actors coming from the New Member Countries and, in the framework of the New Cohesion Policy, the project aims at disseminating information about the Objectives of the New Programming Period 2007-2013 to the largest possible audience interested in project management, giving particular relevance to the New Objective 3, European Territorial Cooperation, as well as to the new Neighbourhood Partnership Instruments: IPA and ENPI.

The afternoon session was dedicated to the ‘state of the art’ of the actions of the project. Within Action n. 2 – Environment Committee, a work session on the Ecomaps and EMAS handbook, has been coordinated by Piero Remitti, Director, Environment and EU programmes, City of Ancona; Thomas Hruschka, Project Manager, Vienna Department for Environmental Protection, illustrated in particular the Eco-mapping handbook, a visual, simple and practical tool to analyse and manage the enviromental performance of small companies and craft industries.

The debate, also animated by Roberta Lazzari, Eurosportello Veneto, focused on eventual problems and questions occurred in the compilation of such an instrument.

Action n. 3 – Port-City Network Committee was introduced by Michele Del Pup, from Adriatic Ports Community on the collection of project ideas for the new INTERREG Programming.

The project ideas were divided in three categories: Technical-Operational (satellite remote sensing, pollution measurements, logistic management-RFID and IT systems); Education-Training (through the organisation of seminars & workshops, surveys, data collection, and of different occasions of spreading information and data); Cooperation-Extension (through the creation of networks with other existing projects and/or UN and EU organisations on environmental protection and marine pollution, and the creation of a common info-point on these issues).

Action n. 4 – Training and Information on the New Cohesion Policy was illustrated by Mr Lorenzo Segato of the new technical partner AICCRE. Europroject management training course. In June 2005 the Municipality of Venice invited AICCRE – association of Local Authorities, with experience in training courses on EU fun-ded projects – to develop a specific training course on the new Structural Funds for the IONAS Project partners, as an activity for the project extension. The training activity aims to raise awareness on the new funding period 2007-2013 and to provide partner organisations with useful skills for fund raising and project management in the future years. The course shall focus on the Principles of Structural Funds Management (part 1), on Practical Aspects (part 2), putting into evidence the differences between Old and New funding opportunities and instruments.

Then, Marta Moretti and Mara Vittori from Cities on Water presented to all partners a report on the dissemination activity conducted in the last months: an update of the project materials, the dissemination of the project in other meetings and events in Italy and abroad such as a tentative list of proposals for promotional materials and actions to be planned over the last months of duration of the project as a IONAS Port and City calendar for the year 2007, a IONAS Cd-Rom including all the project materials produced during the life of the project and for the final conference. The first day of the meeting concluded with a brief update on financial aspects of the project by Elena Ferrario and on the new steps of IONAS (International Conference in Venice, June 16th, and Final meeting in Venice, March 2007).

The second day of the meeting was dedicated to the City-Port session, starting with two main presentations. The first one, with a more theoretical approach, by Brian Hoyle, Geographer, University of Southampton, entitled “Identity and Interdependence: Transport and Transformation at the Port-City” and the second one presenting a practical experience by Sara Thiam, Project Manager of Waterfront Communities Project, INTERREG III B Northsea, dedicated to “City & Port relations and sustainable port management in the experience of European projects”.

As usual, the session, chaired by Marta Moretti, continued with the presentation of partners’ experiences, including the Cities of Bar (Cazim Nikezic), Bari (Anna Maria Curcuruto), Brindisi (Cosimo Mevoli) and the Port Authorities of Bari (Simona De Santis, Giuseppe Nisio, Antonio Pantanella), and Dubrovnik (Dario Barbaric).

Special attention was dedicated to the presentation of the Port of Koper by Boris Marzi, Environmental Manager, and Pavle Krumenaker, Member of the Board of Luka Koper, mainly focused on the environment management, introducing also the technical visit to the port of Koper, that concluded the project meeting.

City of VeniceCity of Koper CorfuPort Authority

Inter. Centre Cities on Water City of Split DubrovnikPort Authority

Eurosportello VenetoCity of Bar SplitPort Authority

OkoB. Plan Wien City of Durres Bar Port Authority

City of AnconaVenicePort Authority DurresPort Authority

City of BariBariPort Authority Euro Info Centre Koper

City of BrindisiBrindisiPort Authority Port of Koper

City of PescaraGioiaTauroPort Authority AICCRE

City of ThessalonikiThessaloniki Port Authority SA