Among the highlights of the third edition of the high level event "Danube Business Talks" organized by viadonau was the presentation and the handing over by Mr. Manfred Seitz (representing Pro Danube International) of the Danube Waterway Industry Declaration to Mrs. Désirée Oen, Policy Adviser to the Rhine-Danube Coordinator, European Commission, and Mr. Norbert Hofer, the Austrian Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology. The proposed measures will be used as input to the important decisions that are foreseen to be taken at the meeting of the Danube Transport Ministers on the margin of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (Transport) on 3 December this year. The declaration is reinforcing the voice of IWT stakeholders in the decision-making process at the national and European level.
Furthermore, EBU and ESO have compiled the Inland Waterway Transport Industry Declaration, while viadonau drafted a list of findings sumarizing some of the most important issues and opportunities for inland waterway transport, especially in the Danube Region.
The development of the Danube as a reliable transport mode is a project that has to go beyond borders. Although tangible progress has been achieved in the framework of the European Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), the outstanding potential of the Danube and its navigable tributaries as an environmentally friendly and cost effective transport mode is by far not sufficiently exploited.
As the Danube is regarded as an indispensable part of the Trans-European Networks for Transport, the businesses which form the Pro Danube network request both the national and European policymakers to take more concrete measures in order to overcome the existing shortcomings in the waterway infrastructure, to expand the Danube ports into centres for regional development and last, but not least, to actively foster the modernization of the Danube fleet. The upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 has to be used at its full potential in order to overcome the bottlenecks that are hindering the development of the IWT on the Danube as a feasible alternative to road transport.
To achieve these goals, the Industry Declaration proposes the following actions:
- Establish and ensure a safe and reliable waterway infrastructure.
- Execute the pre-defined TEN-T bottleneck infrastructure projects.
- Develop the Danube ports into effective centres of intermodal logistics and industrial growth.
- Facilitate the modernization of the Danube Fleet
- Reduce administrative barriers for waterway Transportation.