Minister for Transport and Ports meets Sig. Giorgio Boggio, Head of UE Commission to Malta

The Minister for Transport and Ports, Mr Joe Debono Grech, this morning had a meeting with His Excellency Mr Giorgio Boggio, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Malta.

During the meeting the invitation of the European Commission to ask Malta, as a close partner of the Community and an active participant in the Community's Euro-Mediterranean partnership, to act as the focal point for work on establishing a Mediterranean Pan-European Transport Area was discussed.

This proposal would involve Malta in chairing and hosting meetings of the Mediterranean group with the possibility of the first meeting being held in the Spring of 1998.

The agreement to set-up four Pan -European Transport areas, or Petras as they have come to be known, was reached in the Third Pan-European Transport Conference which took place in Helsinki in June 1997. This conference was attended by Ministers and representatives of Governments and Parliaments of the European Countries, institutions of the European Union, and intergovernmental organisations and bodies.

During the meeting it emerged that the Directorate General of Transport of the European Commission has every interest in seeing the work initiated as soon as possible and a span of 2-3 years is envisaged to complete the ground work required to establish such a Pan-European Transport Area for the Mediterranean.