For almost half a century, Europe was forcibly divided into East and West by the "Iron Curtain", a border stretching from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. The European cycle track Iron Curtain Trail invites people to retrace and experience this important part of the continent's history.

The Iron Curtain Trail thereby contributes in a lively and very practical way to the creation of a genuine European identity. In 2005, following the initiative of Green member Michael Cramer, the European Parliament recognised the "Iron Curtain Trail" as a model project for sustainable tourism and called upon the Member States for support.

The European Parliament accepted a proposal with overwhelming majority related to cycling and asked the European Commission and the Member States to consider the EuroVelo-Network and Iron Curtain Trail as an opportunity for promoting European trans-border cycling infrastructure networks, supporting soft mobility and sustainable tourism. Based on this decision special budget lines were allocated in to support preparatory actions for the Iron Curtain Trail (ICT). Thanks to the successful preparatory actions, in 2011, the European Cyclists Federation inaugurated the Iron Curtain Trail as Route 13 as part of EuroVelo, the European cycle route network, and the national cycling NGOs and regional development bodies started to work on the realization.

The Iron Curtain Trail connects most of the South-East-European countries, provides opportunities to learn, to find and to share good solutions for local, regional mobility challenges and to promote sustainable transport (to improve the image of cycling and public transport). The situation is very different in each of the South-East-European countries in terms of combined public transport offers (public transport and cycling), long distance cycle routes, daily cycling and cycling tourism

Donor:Transnational Cooperation Programme SOUTH EAST  EUROPE

Value: 1 403 441 EUR

Period:10.2012 – 10.2014

www: http://www.ict13.eu/