The European Central Inland Transport Organization or ECITOP was a short-lived

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

agency founded in the immediate aftermath of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to:

provide for the co-ordination both in the movement of traffic and the in the allocation of transport equipment and material with a view to ensuring the best possible movement of supplies both for military forces and the civil population and the speedy repatriation of displaced persons, and also with a view to creating conditions in which the normal movement of traffic can be more rapidly resumed

upon both "the liberation of the territories of the United Nations" and "the occupation of the territories of the enemy" in Europe. The organization was the result of the October 1944 Conference on European Inland Transport in London. The conference was attended by delegations representing Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, USSR, UK, USA and Yugoslavia (or their governments-in-exile) together with observers from Denmark,

Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...

(SHAEF), those from Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander,

Supreme Allied Commander Supreme Allied Commander is the title held by the most senior commander within certain multinational military alliances. It originated as a term used by the Allies during World War I, and is currently used only within NATO for Supreme Allied Comm ...

, Mediterranean (SACMED), and the

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...

(UNRRA), and was chaired by Lord Noel-Baker. The first Director-General was Charles Henry Alexandrowicz, with Major-General Rex Hewer as Deputy Director-General. The official French name of ECITOP was ''Organisation d'Europe centrale pour les transports intérieurs''. ECITOP ceased operations in 1947 when its activities were absorbed by the new Economic Commission for Europe, Inland Transport Committee, and was wound up by 1954. The organization's archives are held by the United Nations Archives in Geneva.

References

{{reflist Organizations established in 1945 Aftermath of World War II Allied occupation of Europe United Nations specialized agencies International organisations based in London Water transport organizations International rail transport organizations Road transport organizations 1954 disestablishments in Europe