EXPERT ECHANGE

On 12th September 2018, the first Danube STREAM expert exchange meeting on environmentally sound waterway management took place in Vienna. This meeting among Danube STREAM consortium members enabled an open discussion about good practices in waterway maintenance, contracting of maintenance services and environmental assessments. Viadonau and Plovput from Serbia reported alternatives on harmonization and consolidation of strategic waterway management principles. They discussed the topics of fairway continuity, proactive waterway maintenance, hydro-morphological characterisation of critical locations and more. AFDJ and EAEMDR presented their experiences concerning the setup of proper agreements and contracts for maintenance services, the minimum conditions to be met, how to keep tender rules up-to-date, etc. Viadonau and AFDJ also contributed inputs on attaining environmental permits for waterway projects in the most efficient and effective way. Furthermore, models for stakeholder involvement were illustrated. The presentations and lively discussions in this meeting provided key input to the Danube STREAM report on environmentally sound waterway management which will be released end of 2018.

Danube Awareness Day

On 13th September 2018, Danube STREAM organised the second intersectoral seminar for representatives from the navigational and the environmental sector. Back-to-back with the ICPDR Joint Statement meeting in Vienna and in cooperation with the partner project DANUBEparksCONNECTED, the seminar brought experts from both fields together for discussion. Viadonau presented the draft STREAM good practice report on environmentally sustainable waterway management practices, followed by Plovput, who illustrated good practices on stakeholder involvement in Serbia. Afterwards, Priority Area 6 of the Danube Region Strategy (Biodiversity) provided recommendations and requirements from their perspective. The last block of the conference was made up by a high-level panel discussion with Helmut Habersack (BOKU), Željko Milković (Sava Commission), Désirée Oen (DG MOVE), Horst Schindler (Danube Commission) and Ivan Zavadsky (ICPDR), moderated by Georg Frank (DANUBEparksCONNECTED) and Gert-Jan Muilerman (viadonau). 

The panellists discussed on how to balance good navigation status and good ecological status in practice. Furthermore, common experiences and lessons learned after 11 years of Joint Statement on Inland Navigation and Environmental Sustainability in the Danube River Basin were discussed as well as their implications for the ongoing Joint Statement process.

In the afternoon, the 9th Joint Statement meeting, organised by ICPDR, took place at the same venue.