OLTIS Group represented in UNIFE Presiding Board

At the UNIFE Presiding Board, which sat on 21 January in Brussels, Mr Miroslav Fukan – Executive Director of OLTIS Group-  was inducted as its newest Member. During the next three years, he will sit at the same table as Bombardier Transportation President (Lutz Bertling), Alstom Transport President (Henri-Poupart-Lafarge), CEO of Siemens Rail Systems (Jochen Eickholt) and five other auspicious members of the board. In parallel, Mr Fukan will also be the member of the UNIFE Strategy Committee and Chairman of the SME Committee.

During the stated meeting, Mr. Fukan, as the UNIFE Presiding Board member, met with the European Commissioner for Transport (Violeta Bulc) and the Commissioner for Regional Policy (Corina Cretu). These meetings were devoted to discussing the current priorities, challenges and strategic objectives of the European railway industry in the nearest electoral term of both representatives of the European Commission.

As a member of the UNIFE Presidential Committee, member of the UNIFE Strategy Committee and Chairman of the Commission for small and medium businesses, Mr. Fukan will defend the interests of the rail sector companies from Central and Eastern Europe and particularly promote better access to European instruments for financing the construction of railway infrastructure and railway research and innovation in the Czech Republic and across Europe. From the European Commission’s perspective, the main priorities in the upcoming period will include support for small and medium-sized companies with emphasis on transport, in order to increase their share in the utilization of European funds for the railway industry.

The election of Mr. Fukan to these important functions is the result of long-term systematic work of the OLTIS Group team in the railway sector and its active involvement in UNIFE, ERRAC, ERA/TSI, and within European rail research and innovation. A concrete result is the company’s involvement in projects of the 7th Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, and active participation in the preparatory phase of Shift2Rail JTI.