Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas signed the EC Decision for the LNG Masterplan for Rhine-Main-Danube in the framework of the TEN -T Days in Tallinn (October 16-18, 2013) and handed it over to Mr Seitz. The event brought together Ministers, Members of the European Parliament and key stakeholders, discussing the future development of the trans-European transport network, with a special focus on financing, innovation and on the implementation tools. The new funding instrument CEF- Connecting Europe Facility was introduced. It will offer manifold project opportunities for the Danube sector in the EU financial period 2014-2020 in particular with regard to investments in Danube ports. PDI will investigate these opportunities in detail and will initiate projects for the first program which is expected for June 2014.
For the LNG Masterplan, the TEN-T Days represented the first important dissemination event where the project initiator and coordinator, Mr Seitz explained the project in front of an audience of more than 500 people. The LNG Masterplan with its impressive investment of more than 120 million Euros in LNG fuelled and carrying vessels as well as in the first LNG small scale terminals received an EU funding commitment of 40.25 million Euros.
On 4 November, PDI addressed a letter to Mrs Ramona Nicole Manescu, Minister of Transport of Romanian as well as to Mr Liviu Dragnea, Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration. In these letters, PDI raised the concern of many PDI members with regard to the discussed change in ownership/administration of the Romanian maritime and Danube ports from national to regional/municipal responsibility. PDI highlighted that no matter which administrative body will manage the Romanian ports, high volumes of public investment into port infrastructure must be provided based on a non-discriminating legal and administrative framework.
Following to a promotion in his professional carrier, the first PDA President, Mr Christian Steindl decided to resign from his function. In an extra-ordinary general assembly meeting, held on 31 October, a new management board was elected with Mr Friedrich Lehr becoming the new President. Mr Lehr holds the position of the commercial director of the Port of Vienna. He expressed the need to continue the excellent work in the start-up phase of PDA and thanked Mr Steindl for his strong commitment in the past.
As other new board members were elected: Ralph Gallob (Industrie-Logistik Linz), Christian Mokry (LogServ), Horst Felbermayr (Felbermayr), Alexander Klacka (Chamber of Commerce), Christoph Henöckl (Garant), Manfred Seitz (PDI) and Otto Schwetz who will function as Vice-President of the association.
On 28 October 2013, the European River-Sea-Transport Union e.V. (ERSTU) organised a conference in Budapest with the theme “The future of the Danube in an enlarged European Economic Area”. The event brought together about 100 representatives of European inland waterway transport organizations, international shipping organizations and of public authorities. Mr Seitz provided an overview on PDI activities as well as on the LNG Masterplan project. Special emphasis he put on the shortcomings of Hungarian authorities in providing the internationally agreed fairway depth standards. As a follow-up ERSTU and PDI agreed on a closer cooperation and exchanged corresponding membership status.
