National transport policy for the period of 2006-2025 (approved by the Council of Ministers on June 29th 2005).

One of the most urgent tasks in implementation of the policy of sustainable development of the country is to reach the civilization development level and standard of living of Western European countries. It requires, however, creation of strong structural foundations of economic growth, including an efficient transport system. From the point of view of Poland's development objectives and aspirations of its citizens it is therefore important that - during the Lisbon Strategy implementation period - transport not only stops being a barrier hindering economic development of the country but also becomes an element significantly contributing to its development, which can be achieved by building adequate infrastructure and providing high quality services on free, competitive and indiscriminative market. Therefore, modernisation of the basic transport network and providing for high quality transport services so that transport contributes adequately to economic development is the most essential task for the upcoming years to 2025. An efficient transport system will contribute to improvement of standard of living, to better accessibility to built-up areas, and to increase of foreign investments in Poland. At the same time the increasing demand for transport posed by the economy will be subject to control in accordance with the principle of sustainable development. Completing restructuring and privatisation of transport companies and finalizing the process of liberalisation of transport markets is the second key task. All those processes should be completed during the current decade. The third task is creating effective co-operation regarding transport issues between the government and local authorities. This co-operation is necessary to provide coherent and complementary system of activities on national and regional scale. Closer co-operation between the government and local authorities will be necessary in the following areas: liberalisation of the market of regional passenger railway transport, inland water navigation, small sea ports, inter-modal transport and road safety (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see E217780.