Among the most important requirements for economic and social progress as a whole are coordinated development and the interlinking of transport infrastructure, as well as transport activities that allow cost-effective, safe and environmentally friendly provision of all types of transport.

In the pre-accession period, Slovenia was entitled to funding in the field of transport from the following two programmes:

• The PHARE programme, which was aimed at co-financing projects providing professional assistance in restructuring the economy and in the implementation of the acquis communautaire, as well as at  co-financing investments of a different nature to those made through ISPA and SAPARD instruments;
• The ISPA Programme, which was aimed at investments in the area of transport and the environment. As from 1 May 2004 the projects became Cohesion Fund projects.

As a Member of the European Union, Slovenia became in 2004 a beneficiary state for co-financing through structural funds and the Cohesion Fund. The Cohesion Fund was established in 1994 with the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty on the basis of Council Regulation (EC) no. 1164/94  amended by Council Regulation (EC) no. 1264/1999 and Council Regulation (EC) no. 1265/1999.

The Cohesion Fund contributes to the strengthening of economic and social cohesion and co-finances projects in the area of the environment and Trans-European transport infrastructure networks in those Member States whose  per-capita gross domestic product is below 90% of the Community average. As from May 2004 the following Member States are entitled to assistance from the Cohesion Fund: Greece, Portugal, Spain, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus.

Council Regulation (EC) no. 1164/94 establishing the Cohesion Fund lays down the criteria for the selection of projects. The compulsory conditions that the proposed projects must fulfil are:

• investment proposals may only relate to the Trans-European transport network (TEN-T) or constitute the completion of missing links on the priority Pan-European corridors,
• the value of infrastructure projects must exceed 10 million EUR,
• projects must comply with  the European transport policy,
• for the years for which co-financing through the Cohesion Fund will be proposed, the complete documentation for the implementation of the proposed projects must be available.

Part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) are also two corridors (Corridors no. V and no.  X) running through Slovenia.

Corridor No. V links south-western and eastern Europe and runs from Venice to Lvov (Ukraine). The basic route of the Corridor runs through Slovenia on the Venice-Trieste/Koper-Ljubljana-Maribor-Murska Sobota-Pince/Hodoš-Budapest axis. Therefore, in the case of Slovenia, we talk about the connection of the axis between Barcelona and Kiev.

Corridor No. X links north-western and south-eastern Europe and runs through Slovenia along the Salzburg–Karavanke–Ljubljana–Obrežje–Zagreb–Belgrade–Skopje–Thessaloniki axis and along one of the four branches (Xa) running across the Slovenian territory, i.e. the Graz-Maribor-Zagreb branch. A part of the railway corridor on the Xa branch runs along the existing line via Zidani Most.

In the period to come, Slovenia is planning to complete the missing links and to improve the traffic fluidity on the trans-European transport network in its territory. The elimination of bottlenecks and of the missing transport links will result in the elimination of road and railway traffic congestion and in the increase in travel speeds; this will have a considerable impact on the improvement of the environment on sections congested with traffic and will make an overall contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Slovenia. Safety will thus be increased in all transport sectors and EU standards fulfilled in relation to safety in the various transport branches.

On the basis of the above stated, the Ministry of Transport prepared a Strategic Reference Framework for Cohesion Fund Assistance for the field of transport in the period 2004 - 2006, which was approved by the Government of Republic of Slovenia and the European Commission in December 2003.  The Document states the priority projects for the period 2004–2006, as well as other projects relating to motorway, railway and maritime transport fulfilling the conditions for co-financing.

Transport projects proposed to be co-financed in the period 2004-2006 are:

• Railway projects:
• Modernisation of the Pragersko – Ormož – Railway Line – Project A (construction)
• Remote Control of Fixed Installations for the Electric Traction System of the Slovenian Railway Networ
• Motorway projects:
  • Construction of the Smednik–Krška Vas Motorway
  • Construction of the Vrba – Peračica motorway section

General information about structural funds and the Cohesion Fund are published on the web site www.gov.si/euskladi.

Information about projects of the Ministry of Transport, co-financed from the Cohesion Fund, are available from  Mrs. Nataša Fras Flegar (+386 1 478 8310) and Mr. Drago Gaberšek (+386 1 478 8250). 

Modernisation of the Maribor Airport Infrastructure

Within the framework of the first priority task related to the single programming document “Promotion of the Enterprise Sector and Competitiveness” one programme for the field of transport was included, i.e.: the “Programme of modernising airport infrastructure facilities and equipment”. Within this programme the project “Modernisation of the Maribor Airport Infrastructure” is being carried out. Its purpose is the following: to increase the degree of safety and capacity at the airport, to comply with the requirements of the so-called Schengen Agreement and to increase the accessibility of less developed regions and as a consequence to speed up the development of these regions.  

The estimated total value of the project is 1.250 billion SIT. Thereof the Ministry of Transport was granted 1 billion ERDF funds (750 million SIT EU funds and 250 million SIT own participation).  The final value of the project will be slightly lower than expected, because the contract values achieved in the tender procedure were lower than the anticipated ones. 

The project implementation started in June 2004 and should be completed in 2006. In the period 2004 – 2005, the Ministry of Transport carried out the following activities:

• reconstruction of the transformer station at the Maribor Airport
• reconstruction of the light navigation system at the Maribor Airport
• purchase of a fire-fighting vehicle for the needs of the Rescue and  Fire-Fighting Service at the Maribor Airport
• purchase of a vehicle for the needs of the Winter Service at the Maribor Airport
• reconstruction of the radio navigation system for instrument landing under low visibility conditions at the Maribor Airport
• procurement and reconstruction of the security fencing in the Maribor Airport area
• elaboration of a feasibility study related to the upgrading of the instrument landing system under low visibility conditions at the Maribor Airport from category CAT I to CAT II
• reconstruction of the hydrant network at the Maribor Airport.

In 2006, the Ministry of Transport will elaborate the project documentation for the reconstruction of the passenger terminal at the Maribor Airport.