The 2nd Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region was organized by the Romanian Government and the European Commission at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest. The Forum brought together government representatives from the 14 riparian countries, European officials (European Commission, European Parliament), academics as well as delegates from the business sector and the civil society. Mr Capatu was the only representative from the industry sector being invited to provide a speech which reflects the high credibility of our organization in the EUSDR process.
In his speech, Mr Capatu reinforced the urgent need for action on the fairway maintenance problems in general and in particular with regard to the critical situation in Bulgaria. In addition, he deliberated the recommendations of PDI on port infrastructure investment, fleet modernization and the reduction of administrative barriers in order to enable the Danube sector to prosper economically.
PDI also provided information on its work and its projects like the LNG Masterplan via an exhibition booth. The strong presence of PDI led to in-depth discussions with a high number of Forum participants enabling PDI to further raise the political awareness for the needs of our members.
Being in Bucharest, Mr Capatu took advantage to participate on 28 October also in the 7th European Conference of the Danube Cities and Regions. This conference was organised to support the Annual EUSDR Forum and was attended by the Mayors of Bucharest, Ulm and Regensburg, the Minister for European Affairs of Baden-Württemberg as well as many officials and stakeholders from national and regional authorities.
In May of this year, IFC/Worldbank invited PDI/Mr Seitz to present PDI´s viewpoints on administrative barriers for Danube transport as an input to its major project initiative on trade facilitation on the Western Balkans. This project is a 2.5 year, 2 million USD exercise co-funded by the European Commission and by client government contributions. The project addresses regulatory and administrative bottlenecks to cross-border trade which is a pre-condition for improving the current border-crossing situation on the Danube.
Following the first exchange of information, Mr Seitz was invited to participate a working meeting of the project on 27 September in Belgrade. He elaborated the existing problems for waterway transport in the Danube region and in particular with regard to the border crossing procedures for transport with and through Serbia. Representatives from Serbian authorities expressed their willingness to improve the current situation. Concrete improvements should be executed in the framework of an IFC facilitated implementation project. This project is currently in its design phase. PDI and IFC agreed to continue the exchange of information with regard to this forthcoming project.
The workshop brought together representatives of the shipping industry from Hungary, Serbia, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Germany and Croatia with the objective to improve the dialogue between the navigation sector and the Danube Commission under the newly elected General Secretariat. PDI participated in the workshop in order to raise the awareness of the Danube Commission for the severe navigation problems on the Danube.
In his presentation which was titled: “Guaranteed standards for waterway maintenance, Pre-condition for safe and cost-effective Danube navigation”, Mr Capatu explained the economic impact of neglected fairway maintenance and asked the new General Secretariat for concrete and tangible actions in the framework of the Commission´s work. He explicitly referred to Art. 4 of the Danube Convention which empowers the Danube Commission to act in case of failure of maintenance work under national responsibility.
In addition, Mr Seitz delivered a presentation on the EU TEN T co-financed LNG Masterplan for Rhine-Main-Danube and outlined the perspectives of LNG as vessel fuel and as a cargo on the Danube. In a follow-up meeting on executive level, the General Secretariat of the DC and PDI agreed on a closer co-operation in the future in order to achieve the common goal of infrastructure improvements.
As of September 2013, four new members joined the PDI network: SC Navrom Delta SA, Navmar Shipping Co. Ltd., Felbermayr Holding GmbH and SC SOCEP SA Constanta. All four new members can boast a long tradition in working on the Danube.
SC Navrom Delta SA is the first PDI member that is also dealing with passenger transport. The company was founded in 1999 and provides passenger and goods transport in the Danube Delta and Tulcea Municipality.
Under the motto “We don’t work for tomorrow. We create it.” Navmar Shipping Co. Ltd. provides shipping, offshore and industrial services, transport and logistics as well as corporate services since 2003. One other main field of commercial activity of Navmar is to provide tailor-made crewing and crew management services according to international ISO standards.
Founded in 1942, Felbermayr Holding GmbH is the lead company for 21 operative subsidiaries which work in the field of logistics and transport, lifting technology as well as construction and civil engineering. Within the field of transport, the basis for the company's strength lays in the integration of all three transport modes: road, rail and water. Continuously growing and expanding, the company is one of the most significant international players.
SC SOCEP SA is a leading Constanta Port operator, owning a container and general cargo terminals in the Port of Constanta. Founded in 1991, SOCEP continuously improved its cargo handling services with containers, dry and break bulk cargo being the core of its operations.
