Ten years ago, Mr. Alexandru Capatu and Mr. Manfred Seitz together with highly committed founding members have given the Danube community a common voice to address key challenges confronting the Danube inland navigation sector. On this occasion, we would like to thank all our members, partners and colleagues for their dedication and support to engage in a long-term, active, and coordinated cooperation process benefiting the IWT sector and regional economy at large. Since its establishment, Pro Danube International continuously continued to grow, developing into a network of more than 180 companies that have a strategic interest in securing better infrastructure conditions and a higher rate of public investments in the Danube transport and logistics system.
With the Danube being regarded as the economical backbone of a transnational region par excellence, characterized by different levels of socioeconomic development, Pro Danube International successfully managed to bring together public and private representatives of the Danube Region in order to have a lasting impact on the overall situation of IWT. This year's General Assembly is set to celebrate a decade of commitment to the well-being of the Danube IWT sector and to intensify cooperation with related branch organisations. We therefore cordially invite our partners to join the open session of our General Assembly to take part in the discussions with highly distinguished experts of the IWT sector.
Those of you interested to attend, please register
here.
The LASTING Project, co-financed by Horizon 2020 of the European Commission and managed by both INEA - Innovation and Networks Executive Agency and the EC kicked-off on the 20th of January 2021.
LASTING will broaden engagement of the broader waterborne transport sector in European RD&I activities, by developing a communication strategy, and implementing a long-lasting communication campaign beyond the lifetime of this project, ultimately increasing stakeholder engagement in the sector and thereby increasing impact of European waterborne transport RD&I. Pro Danube Management is part of the LASTING partnership.
In the frame of the EU co-funded project “Preparing FAIRway 2 works in the Rhine-Danube corridor”, one of the aims among other tasks is to improve public mooring place infrastructure for commercial cargo shipping.
In order to achieve this goal, viadonau together with the project partners want to determine the shipping sector’s requirements regarding the availability and quality of public mooring places in form of a survey, with special focus on the project countries Austria, Croatia and Serbia.
Based on the survey results, the project team will undertake preparatory measures for the construction and / or upgrading of public mooring places in Austria, Croatia and Serbia in a second step.
Your opinion counts – make sure to participate in the survey under following link (EN version): https://easy-feedback.de/mooring-places/1284825/39BMxP
The German survey version can be found under the following link: https://easy-feedback.de/Liegestellen/1267040/Hgy1FY
2020 will go down in history as the year that has thrown the whole transportation system into a never-before-seen level of uncertainty. The governmental restrictions introduced in response to the pandemic have caused disruptions severely affecting ports, shipping, transport, and supply chains. While the longer-term impact of the outbreak is yet to be fully understood, all economic indicators, as well as the feedback received by Pro Danube from the industry, point to significant immediate challenges for the IWT sector. Hence, the outlook for 2021 is rather sobering: both passenger and cargo transportation was heavily affected, with cargo not having enough time to fully recover after the drought of 2018. Pro Danube will continue to intensify cooperation at all levels to make sure that the Danube IWT sector will emerge stronger from the current health and subsequent economic crisis.
Representing a network of more than 150 businesses, Pro Danube has closely followed the measures introduced by the different Danube Riparian Countries, being in close contact with relevant national and European institutions as well as other branch organisations in order to provide constructive input to the ongoing solution-finding processes. The last year has shown how important solidarity, transparency, and widely harmonised actions are. With IWT having a crucial role to fulfil in the Danube Region in terms of economic and social welfare, Pro Danube proposed a set of measures to provide the businesses operating on the Danube with more certainty. Firstly, one of the most urgent problems that needed to be addressed referred to the free change of crew members on inland vessels and as such the implementation of uniform regulations. Secondly, keeping border control locations as in regular conditions is of utmost importance in securing a smooth transport flow in times of crisis. The implementation of the DAVID forms developed in the framework and cooperation of EUSDR PA1a and PA11 in several EU and non-EU countries was a vital step forward in reducing time-consuming and often costly administrative procedures. Thirdly, supporting the recovery of the sector by an EU-wide harmonised approach for the cruising and shipping industry is an essential prerequisite to provide the sector with adequate financial actions and measures that pave the way towards the adaptation to the strict environmental legislative framework adopted by the Legislative.
In order to be fully and thoroughly informed, Pro Danube used various communication channels to reach out and engage with the industry on a regular basis. Since the early stages of the crisis, the
PDI Administrative Barrier Reporting Tool (available in all languages of the Danube Region) was used as an additional instrument to collect first-hand information about the challenges faced by stakeholders in their daily activities.
But the year 2020 meant way more than the COVID-19 pandemic. Pro Danube was happy to start a new promising transnational collaboration in the framework of the
DIONYSUS project. We committed ourselves to further strengthen the efficient partnership already established in previously implemented
DTP projects under the leadership of PDI such as
DANTE,
DAPhNE and
GRENDEL to actively promote IWT as a reliable alternative to other modes of transport – even in times of crisis. The year 2020 also marked the end of a successful transnational success story: the GRENDEL project. Initiated by Pro Danube International, GRENDEL was a vital step forward in providing a fruitful ground for the establishment of dedicated financial instruments that trigger investments in the Danube fleet. Another successful project which ended in 2020 was W2GAS. The project provided valuable insights into sustainable developments in the fuel sector as well into Austrian biogas technology solutions that can be applied at other locations at well.
Equally important for the IWT sector was the selection of two key transport projects
FAIRway works! in the Rhine-Danube Corridor and
Preparing FAIRway 2 works in the Rhine-Danube Corridor - co-financed via the Connecting Europe Facility. Both Actions are carried out following the results of the CEF funded Actions FAIRway Danube and are co-ordinated by the
Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology with the support of
viadonau as designated implementing body. For both, Pro Danube and several of its members provided letters of support and will continue to follow their implementation and provide inputs from the business perspective.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, 2021 is a year of new beginnings: we are happy to announce that starting with January we are part of two major H2020 projects:
LASTING and
PLATINA 3.
In 2021 we also celebrate
a decade of commitment to the well-being of the IWT sector: 10 years since the establishment of Pro Danube International. This milestone will be marked by a Pro Danube General Assembly foreseen to take place on 26 March with the participation of
Mrs. Inés Ayala Sender, the new European Coordinator for the
Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor as of 1 January 2021
