Important international seminar held in Skopje
Encouraging sustainable transport to improve public health is a key issue in improving the quality of urban living in Europe. In response to this challenge, an important international conference was held in Skopje - Sustainable and healthy urban transport policies in South-East Europe - “Working together to make things happen”.
The conference was organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe), under the auspices of the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European programme (THE PEP). In the FYR of Macedonia, the conference was a joint initiative of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Environment and Physical Planning, and the Ministry of Transport and Communications.The workshop focused on the policy integration among three sectors (environment, health and transport) with three stakeholders - local authorities, industry and citizens’ groups. The major objective of the workshop was to encourage and enhance the cooperation between transport, health and environmental policy-makers in South-East Europe to develop combined strategies and measures on sustainable transport and health in South East Europe.Government officials, national and local authorities, representatives of private sectors, academia, non-governmental organisations and international experts informed and learned from each other. Participants had the opportunity to present successful experiences and discuss the barriers they face in implementing sustainable urban transport plans and policies.The CIVITAS RENAISSANCE project has three measures to produce sustainable urban transport plans, two in South East Europe (Skopje, FYROM and Gorna Oryahovitsa, Bulgaria). The RENAISSANCE project presented by Mirjana Apostolova - the Skopje Dissemination Manager. The Skopje initiative in RENAISSANCE is producing a sustainable transport plan for the city; implementing measures for a cleaner, more efficient and informative public transport system in the city, plus additional measures to improve the air quality through better traffic management.
