The European Commission reacted very positively on the PDI request for an EU led task force on better fairway maintenance. As consequence to our initiative, the EC has started an internal process to elaborate a strategy and concrete measures to tackle the severe maintenance problems on the Danube. The Commission plans to set up a political process involving all Danube states as well as the navigation industry in order to guarantee effective and safe navigation.
In December last year PDI approached the European Commission (EC) to act on the dramatic shortfalls of several national waterway administrations in ensuring minimum standards for the Danube fairway. PDI provided background information on the fairway problems to the Commission´s services and officially asked Vice-President Siim Kallas and Commissioner Johannes Hahn for EC coordination and support. In two follow-up meetings held in Brussels with representatives of DG MOVE and DG REGIO we explained the economic importance to restore proper fairway maintenance and our proposals for solution.
The EC considers to launch a political process which will be accompanied by a technical expert group. Both processes will be closely linked to the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). The details on the political and technical activites are now under elaboration and will be communicated to PDI in the nearest future.
The Commission demonstrated the importance of our initiative by sending us an in-advance information signed by the chief of cabinet of Commissioner Hahn. This letter can be downloaded from our service section under: DG Regio letter to PDI
PDI will continue to push for state-of-the-art fairway maintenance until concrete achievements have been reached.