Fruitful ARC Annual General Meeting 2009 held in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands

The hosts of the meeting, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer and the province of Noord-Holland near Schiphol airport, are much to thank for the contribution to the fruitful get-together.

The meeting approved one new member of ARC, SOWAER (Société Wallonne des Aéroports), representing the Walloon Government in Belgium. Two new members were elected to the ARC Executive Committee, Laila Driessen, vice Governor of the province of Noord-Holland, and Alain Leikine from Val d´Oise, France. The ARC President Anne Devitt was re-elected for two more years and member Erich Valentin from Vienna for two more years.

The meeting also decided to work towards setting up an ARC Secretariat in Brussels in 2011, when the undertaking of the Göteborg Region to host the ARC Secretariat will come to an end. The main alternative is to reach an agreement with a member region represented in Brussels. A new Secretary General will also be recruited for 2011. A final proposal for the future will be discussed at the Annual General Meeting in Göteborg in 2010.
 
The meeting adopted an ARC positition paper on Intermodality in Airport Regions. It was emphasised that surface access and intermodality have become major issues in many airport regions with the increased volume of passengers and freight at airports.
 
- All the different interests of the airport and the aviation sector have to be balanced with the interests from local residents and communities to find a proper balance between the benefits of the airport to the wider community and the local conditions, said Bengt Christensson, ARC Seceratary General.  

The position paper states that investments in intermodal solutions is one of the most important elements in developing local and regional economies in Europe to release their potential to economic growth. Intermodal solutions can also reduce the carbon footprint impact of surface access to airports, which is necessary since about 50 percent of carbon emissions in an airport region are associated with airport surface access.
 
- Airport regions are economic engines in Europe and a door to door perspective implies seamless journeys between different modes of transport are the future, said ARC President Anne Devitt.
                                                                                                          
Gunnel Rydberg