Eng. Yordan Valchev: Expanding cooperation between road administrations in Europe will be a focus of the RIA Presidency of the CEDR

In 2025, the agency will assume the rotating presidency of the international organisation

The Chairman of the Management Board of the Road Infrastructure Agency Eng. Yordan Valchev discussed with Steve Phillips, Secretary General of the CEDR — Conference of Directors of Road Administrations in Europe, the upcoming rotating presidency of the organization by RIA in 2025. Mr. Phillips is in Plovdiv to participate in the regional congress of the International Road Federation (IRF) on ‘Europe and Central Asia’ and the XVII National Conference on Transport Infrastructure, which are held in the period 24-27 September this year in the regional city. Since 2017, Road Infrastructure Agency is a member of the IRF and a partner of the Forum. This is the first time that an event of this rank is held in Bulgaria.
In 2025, the Road Infrastructure Agency will take over from Belgium the rotating presidency of the CEDR, which involves the national road administrations of 29 countries in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. The Agency has been a member since2014 and will take over as Chair for the first time. In this regard, a leading focus in the talks between Eng. Mr Valchev and Mr Phillips were the strategic objectives and initiatives of the Bulgarian Presidency. The two agreed that one of the leading tasks in 2025 will be to establish a framework for ongoing cooperation and communication between the road administrations that are members of the organisation. The meeting also discussed opportunities for cooperation to improve regional road connectivity, as well as north-south transport links and crossing Bulgaria's border crossings as an important factor for improving cross-border links and reducing travel time. Best practices and innovative solutions for efficient and sustainable road network construction and management are also discussed.
The Agency has been a member of CEDR since 2014. The national road administrations of 29 countries from Western, Central and Eastern Europe are members of the organisation. The CEDR is currently chaired by Belgium, in 2023 it was chaired by Austria, in 2022 by Portugal and in 2021 by. The UK. More information about the Conference of Directors of Road Administrations in Europe (CEDR) in the attached link — https://cedr.eu/.