On 28 March 2013 PDI addressed the Romanian Minister for Transport, Mr Relu Fenechiu, with regard to the difficulties that shipping operators face as a consequence to the limited opening hours at the customs office in the Port of Cernavoda as well as in other Romanian inland ports. The restrictions in working hours, services are usually available from Monday to Friday 08.00-16.00 hrs, cause additional financial costs due to time losses, especially if convoys arrive during weekends and consequently have to wait until Monday to be inspected. PDI requested on behalf of its members to revise and to improve this situation.
On 24 May we received a positive answer from Undersecretary of State, Mr Constantin Matei. Mr Matei informed that as consequence of our request, customs authorities at the Port of Cernavoda will from now on be available also during week-ends, if they are called three hours in advance by the shipping operator or its agent. This service shall be provided under the condition that the shipping operator organises the transport of the customs officer from Constanta South to the Port of Cernavoda and back again. The service line for making the pre-arrangements is as follows: + 40 241 601 182.
The new arrangement was made possible through the strong personal engagement of Undersecretary of State, Mr Matei, who negotiated the solution with the Romanian Ministry of Finance. We therefore would like to express our gratitude to him.
On the 3rd of May 2013, Pro Danube International (PDI) addressed VP Kallas and CM Hahn with a request to ensure in advance inland waterways maintenance measures on the Danube. The letter calls upon the Ministerial Declaration on effective inland waterways maintenance on the Danube from June 7th, 2012 and the results of the subsequent survey on the current waterway maintenance measures undertaken by the Danube countries. The survey clearly showed that some Danube waterway administrations have no budgets for waterway maintenance, which is one of the primary reasons for traffic problems on the Danube during low water periods.
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the Recognition and the modernisation of professional qualifications in inland navigation. The main goal of the consultation is to gather stakeholder information concerning this topic, which will then help to shape improved labour mobility policies for the EU inland navigation sector and thus contribute to better quality jobs and harmonised recognition and certification systems. The consultation is open to inland waterways transport of persons and goods and all the relevant industry and related stakeholders.
Considering the importance of qualified personnel in the inland navigation sector, we encourage all interested stakeholders to take active part in this EC Consultation. All information relevant to the consultation is available online under:
On the 25th of March 2013 Pro Danube Management GmbH, successfully submitted the Project Proposal “LNG Master Plan for the Rhine-Main-Danube”, in its capacity of promoter and overall coordinator of the Project.
The project falls under the Priority Project Nr. 18 “Waterway axis Rhine/Meuse-Main-Danube” of the TEN-T Network Programme and includes 33 companies and organisations from 12 EU Member States with a project volume eligible for EU co-finance of app. 121 mn. € of which app. 52 mn. € will be allocated in the Danube region. Main partners from the Danube region are: Transport Trade S.A. which will invest into a receiving terminal in the Port of Constanta, Navrom S.A. Galati, which will convert vessels to LNG fuelling, Bulmarket DM Ltd. which will set up a distribution terminal in Ruse including supply of its gas customers by truck, Chemgas Holging B.V. which will invest in two LNG carriers, as well as Linz AG, Ceronav, Bernhard Schülte Ltd., Danube LNG EEIG, APDM Galati, University of Craiova, FHOÖ Forschungs- und Entwicklungs GmbH, EVN AG, Erste Group Bank AG and A3PS-Austrian Agency for Alternative Propulsion Systems.
