16th Anniversary Annual Meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA

Georgia is the next Chairman of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission

On 10 February 2023, in Tbilisi, the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) TRACECA will be held, during which the chairmanship of the IGC TRACECA will pass from the Republic of Bulgaria to Georgia. The Republic of Bulgaria has chaired the IGC TRACECA since 21 October 2021.

It is noteworthy that the high-level event is Anniversary on the occasion of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the creation of the TRACECA programme and the 25th anniversary of the signing of the "Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor" (MLA).

The Meeting will be attended by official representatives of the Governments of the MLA Parties, Permanent Representatives (National Secretaries) of the Permanent Secretariat (PS) of the IGC TRACECA in the states- participants of the MLA, observers in the Intergovernmental Commission - the Republic of Lithuania and Greece, representatives of Turkmenistan as a participant in the TRACECA programme, representatives of international organizations and TRACECA partners.   

As part of the Agenda of the Meeting, it is planned to discuss issues related to the development of multimodal transport, facilitation of border crossing procedures, development of maritime transport and other issues aimed at development of the TRACECA corridor. The agenda also provides for consideration of issues intended for   further institutional development

During the discussions, the IGC Meeting plans to approve documents, in particular the Border Crossing Hotline Concept, the Methodology of evaluating road check points in the new edition, and the Methodology for the generation of statistical data along the routes of the TRACECA corridor, which are designed to facilitate border crossing procedures and increase the efficiency of calculating the volume of goods along the TRACECA corridor.

Among the documents planned for discussion on the development of the international transport corridor are the establishment of the TRACECA Fund, the Business Council, the Working Group on Digitalization, as well as the draft Agreement on visa-free travel of professional drivers along the corridor, and the Concept of the vessel for cargo transport the Caspian Sea and other issues.  

TRACECA countries will consider the results of the functioning of the TRACECA permit system for international road transport in 2021, the status of implementation by the MLA Parties of the IGC decisions, information on accession to international agreements, as well as the Report on the implementation of the Action Plan for 2018-2021 for implementation of the Strategy of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA for  development of the international transport corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia for 2016-2026.

The programme of the IGC Meeting also provides for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the PS and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing Countries, as well as a Memorandum of Cooperation between the PS and the Association of Legal Entities “International Association "Trans-Caspian International Transport Route" (ALE "IA TITR "). It should be noted that the mandate to sign these memorandums by the SG was received, following the decision of the 15th Annual Meeting of the IGC, as of 21 October 2021.

In addition, the issue of accession of Turkmenistan to the MLA deserves special attention. At present, most   MLA Parties have agreed to join.

Based on the results of the IGC, it is planned to adopt the final documents and the Final Resolutions of the IGC Meeting.


For reference:
•    The Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) operates in accordance with the Rules of Procedure. The decisions and recommendations adopted by the IGC determine the activities of the Permanent Secretariat of the IGC TRACECA, located in Baku.
•    The Permanent Secretariat has its Permanent Representations in each of the states-participants of the MLA TRACECA.
•    TRACECA includes the transport system of 13 member states united by the idea of developing the international transport corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia. The Republic of Lithuania and Greece received the observer status in the IGC TRACECA in 2009 and in 2018, correspondingly.