The development of sustainable transport policies in the Vienna- Bratislava Metropolitan Region is hampered by diverging views on:

Overall, political institution-building has not kept pace with the functional integration of the region. This has limited the region’s response capacity to deal with change. The key question is now how to enhance this response capacity and how to strengthen the collective efforts to make this important region at the heart of Europe “future-proof”’.

The evolution of traffic in the Vienna-Bratislava region could jeopardise
environmental sustainability. The international transport volumes, intra-regional cross-border traffic and suburbanisation are increasing. At the same time a shift takes place from rail to road transport. This puts pressure on the cross-border transport infrastructure that is slow, unreliable, disrupted and badly connected to national and international networks.

Cross-border transport demand has doubled between 1995 and 2000 and is likely to increase annually by 10 per cent until 2015. However, policy has hardly addressed infrastructure deficiencies between Vienna and Bratislava.

This case study was highlighted during the British presidency of the EU. It was specifically mentioned during the EU informal ministerial meeting at Bristol.

Harmonising competencies across the borders is a difficult process. There is a need for more flexible and long-term, multi-layered governance arrangements where existing competencies and their limitations recognised. This cooperation should involve local, regional and national actors across both sides of the border. Sustainable transport policies are a logical beginning for such an arrangement.

No concrete results are available yet.

Urban Policy Support Team of the ODPM
Mr. B. Kayada, tel. +44 2 07 944 8363

01/05/2004

case

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Land use

Suburbanisation