Diapositive 1

1
Infrastructure and Social development issues in
South Eastern Europe
Working Table IIEconomic Reconstruction,
Development and Co-operation 17 May 2005, Sofia
2
Demography and social environment

• Population in SEE 57.7 million
• Large regional disparities
• High level of poverty, even if poverty appears to
  have declined over the last years
• Social environment
• Large differences between urban and rural areas
• Substantial shortcomings in infrastructure due to
  decades of under investment and conflicts
• poor maintenance of the infrastructure and lack
  of provision of essential public services
• low average living standards compared to EU
  standards

3
Transport and social implications

• Indispensable for the sustainability of growth
  and the exchange of goods
• Reconnecting regions and reducing discrepancies
  between areas
• Safety (accidents)
• Health and Education (rural areas, access to
  facilities, especially by vulnerable groups),
• Employment (improve mobility- local and urban
  roads)
• Restructuring of the transport networks
  negative impacts in some areas (railways)
• Urban transport / quality of service

4
Energy

• Affordable Energy (electricity, gas)
• High costs of energy have implications on
  households income and on poverty
• Even if tariffs should reflect long term costs
  and appropriate rates of return, social
  implications on disadvantaged groups (refugees,
  IDPs, minorities) need to be addressed
• Access to energy networks in rural areas
• Energy efficiency should be improved (poor
  quality of the housing stock, heating and
  renewable energy)

5
Safe and sustainable living environment

• Modernizing and improving basic and urban
  infrastructure as well as housing is a key issue
  (some large cities in the region see a large
  degradation of the urban environment (informal
  settlements (Tirana, Belgrade),
• Safer buildings improve health and quality of
  life in general
• Access to safe water and sewage networks,
• Solid waste treatment need to be addressed all
  over the region
• Prevention of floods and protection of the coasts

6
Preconditions for sustainable development in SEE

• Infrastructure is crucial for underpinning the
  social and economic development of the region
• mobilizing financial resources for key sectors
• Improve regulatory framework and capacity
  building
• Improve quality of life compared to EU standards
• Gradual implementation of the acquis
  communautaire  should help to improve quality of
  life
• non responding to the demand in infrastructure
  can cause bottlenecks at local, national and
  regional level
• investments in infrastructure, in human capital
  (health, education) and social services, should
  not be exclusive of each other
• All are crucial for sustaining economic growth
  and social development in SEE