Marco Polo two-day conference 2008 ended on 11st June.
This international seminar was held in Venice in order to take stock of projects that shift freight transport from the road to sea, rail and inland waterways, which will be carried out within the European Union’s funding programme Marco Polo.

The project is aimed at offering concrete solutions in order to cause fewer trucks to circulate on the road, and thus having less congestion, less pollution and more reliable ed efficient transport of goods.

The current, second Marco Polo programme runs from 2007-13 and features:

• more money: the programme budget is €450 million Euros;
• more themes: this programme includes "motorways of the sea" and "traffic avoidance"
  projects;
• more countries: Countries bordering the EU are now eligible for funding if they signed an association agreement.

This is a very important funding opportunity for enterprises in the freight transport business, as Marco Polo could help them realise their projects and free Europe's roads.

Marco Polo is managed by the European Commission's Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation.

During the first day, some achieved projects were presented:

the Short Sea XML project, related to IT standardization protocols: the project leader Mariann Sundvor spoke about it;

the ATTAC project, as an alternative to Alpine passes: Paul Kyprianou, manager director of Grimaldi & Luois Dreyfus Lines, described the new shipping route connecting the ports of Civitavecchia (Italy) and Toulon (France), the latter being a new port east of Marseille.

Moreover, also the IT POL IT Net project was presented, which is a route connecting Italy and Poland, shifting from road to railway. This plan initially encountered some difficulties concerning the electronic parts of the engines used, but it prefigures a future improvement and increased efficiency in freight transport.

The speech by the President of the Committee on Transport and Tourism within the European Parliament, and newly elected president of the Venice port was a longed-for event.

“This project – he said- is aimed at reducing bottlenecks that cause traffic congestion and undermine security, by means of shifting transport from the road to sea and railways.
This activity brings to a consequent reduction in fuels and thus a diminution in air pollution and road casualties”.
He stated that we also have to consider oil costs, climate change and new geographies that prefigure new links. He underlined that it is not enough to be in the right place, but it is also important to catch new geographies within globalization, so as not to be bypassed.

Consult the speech in Italian

The Advisor to the Minister of Motorways of the Sea Mr. Fabio Capocaccia underlined the importance of motorways of the sea in order to speak a common language. The motorways of the sea schedule 2 out of 4 corridors in the Mediterranean area: this is a new concept of port cluster, in which connection is not from one point to another anymore, but from region to region. Moreover, he pointed out the relevance of mobile technologies in order to transmit information to road hauliers in a one-to-one communication.

The subsequent speech was by Antonio Revedin, Strategic Planning and Development Director of Venice Port Authority, who talked about the role of the port within new geographies.

Harald Schmitter illustrated the DUE project, the intermodal rail-road service connecting Italy with Germany, from Cervignano del Friuli to Monaco.

After all, participants had the possibility to make an interesting visit to Venice port.

Consult the images related to the guided tour
Photo gallery
Photo gallery 

Port of Venice - map

More information on the website by the European Commission, Directorate General for Energy & Transport - Marco Polo: Free Roads, Clean air