Attended by experts of the European Commission (DG MOVE and DG COMP), the Danube Commission as well as national public and private entities, the core objective of the second public consultation organised in the framework of the GRENDEL project was to discuss and analyse the ongoing drafting process of the Model State Aid Scheme. Initiated by Pro Danube International, the ambitious plan to provide a widely harmonised State Aid Scheme for Danube fleet modernisation across borders has to take several legal aspects into consideration in order not to interfere with European legislation.
The current status of the draft proposal was thoroughly evaluated by the attendees. As a result, valuable input was provided to further develop and fine-tune the text contentwise. European and national experts furthermore discussed scenarios for the concrete implementation process of this innovative financing instrument and the possibility to support the scheme through the Cohesion Fund. Since the lower parts of the Danube are severely affected by low investment capacities of vessel operators, providing tailored funding incentives for fleet modernisation through specific Operational Programmes could be regarded as a fitting solution.
The key achievements of DAPhNE and expected results of GRENDEL were presented by PDI’s General Secretary, Mr. Róbert Rafael, in the framework of the EUSDR PA 1a 17th Steering Group Meeting organised earlier this month in Brussels.
Based on the successful implementation of the policy initiative “Green Deal for Danube River Transport” developed by Pro Danube International, the DANTE and DAPhNE projects produced tangible results that are widely recognized on the European level. Meanwhile, the expectations set for GRENDEL´s ambitious plan to propose a harmonized State Aid Scheme on the transnational level in proactively supporting the challenging modernisation process of the Danube fleet are extremely high. The main conclusion was that even though Pro Danube`s initiatives managed to have a positive impact on the overall development of waterborne transport in the Danube Region, there is still a long way to go until IWT is exploited at its full economic and environmental potential.
STEERER (Structuring Towards Zero Emission Waterborne Transport) will coordinate the establishment and communication of a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda and an Implementation Plan towards zero-emission waterborne transport, in cooperation with all key stakeholders needed to facilitate the transformation to clean waterborne transport. In the definition of STEERER, as well as cutting green house gas emissions, all harmful environmental emissions, water pollution and noise emissions have to be eliminated. STEERER’s mission is to bring the various initiatives and sectors’ stakeholders together to join forces for a combined effort with the maximum impact for the climate, people’s health and Europe’s economy. STEERER is coordinated by the Waterborne Technology Platform, counting with participation of a total of seven partners from six EU countries.
STEERER has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 875285. The consortium will function as a Secretariat, where the broader expertise is involved in the Scientific Committee and the Green Shipping Expert Group to be established by the project. STEERER is funded by the European Commission research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, with an investment of 1,5 million euro over the course of 30 months, starting in December 2019.
For detailed information, please refer to attached press release here.
Sustainable solutions, automation and digitalisation as well as communication on a European level will be part of the education and training programmes. The ultimate goal of the project is to increase labour mobility in the inland shipping sector. COMPETING is an Erasmus+ project. The duration of COMPETING is from the 1st of January 2019 until the 31st December 2021.
COMPETING will develop curricula and lesson materials as well as a Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) system to ensure the highest level of quality concerning the implementation of future proof IWT (Inland Waterway Transport) education and training throughout the EU. There are fifteen partners participating in this project.The COMPETING consortium consists of different categories of stakeholders such as: (i) IWT education and training institutes, which have to modify their lesson programmes towards a European wide competency-based recognised education and training programme, (ii) social partners (employers and unions) representing the industry and crew members working in the industry and (iii) competent authorities and umbrella organisations as well as members of the Advisory Board.
For the first time all key stakeholders cooperate on an European level to develop an European wide recognised and modern curriculum for IWT, in combination with lesson materials as well as a Quality Assurance /Quality Control system (QA/QC). These achievements will in the end lead to the implementation of EU legislation, resulting in a comparable system for the recognition of educational programmes and properly qualified crew with the possession of a Union certificate.
Details on the progress of the project can be found in the December newsletter here.
