City
Central Greece, Greece
Region
Outside Central Europe
Audience
Rural area
Theme
Collective passenger transport
Aspect
1.1 Evaluate capacities and resources
Context
The region of Central Greece occupies the eastern half of the traditional region of Central Greece, including the island of Euboea. It has total population of 547,390 inhabitants. Central Greece is moving towards the adoption of mobility plans.
Activity description
In 2016, 152 Municipalities were selected for funding in order to develop their SUMPs. The European SUMP Guidelines give a structured framework for the technical implementation of a SUMP but as each Country, Region and local area has its own particularities, the Greek Ministry of Transport decided to develop some horizontal National Directions in order to support Greek areas (Municipalities, Metropolitan areas or Regions) that decide to develop a SUMP in order to ensure a high quality of the final plans and also a short term display of their positive effects. The Directions cover aspects such as internal organization of the local supervising authority, preparatory actions, staff qualifications and data needed, assurance of cooperation between relevant authorities and citizens, basic technical analysis and steps to be followed, evaluation criteria of proposed measures and assurance of targets and vision success were analytically described. They will have the form of a National regulation and after a one and a half year of implementation, they were finalized, signed by each participating member and are going to be provided to the 152 Municipalities for starting their SUMPs. Some remaining issues to be solved include the organizational reformation of the Ministry of Transport in order to create a quality control committee who will make the final check of the SUMPs that will be developed by the Municipalities.
Lessons learnt
The objective was achieved by setting up a working group with representatives of the involved ministries and the scientific community who worked in close cooperation, taking into account all the needs of the Greek local authorities and delivering the specific Directions. As a result, the technical specifications are ready and so are the Municipalities to follow the steps that are described in the Directions in order to develop their SUMPs with the first of them being the procurement preparation.
Costs
No resources were used for this action. The committee consisted of representatives of Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Internal Affairs, CERTH/HIT, cities’ associations and the Hellenic Institution of Transport Engineers (HITE).