STEPS TOWARDS THE Strategy and Action PLAN

The DANTE project which is focused on overcoming administrative barriers and procedures in inland waterborne transport has progressed significantly. All project management activities are according to the planned schedule. All project partners actively promoted the Transnational IWT barrier reporting tool in order to encourage as many stakeholders as possible to report on the administrative barriers and good examples they experience on different sections of the Danube. Statistics prove that the tool is used by more and more users - by December 2018, more than 200 issues were reported, which corresponds to 70 new inputs since February 2018.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUTS AND THE DANTE TEAM IS LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FUTURE AS WELL!

The report proposes guidelines and recommendations for relevant stakeholders to improve administrative procedures and processes related to shipping on the Danube river.

At the beginning of November, the first draft of the “Strategy and Action Plan for the Improvement of the Danube IWT Administration” was presented to the DANTE Consortium. This action plan is an instrument that, based on the primary data received by the stakeholders who operate on the Danube, proposes a path to follow for the responsible authorities to harmonize administrative procedures and regulations on a transnational level. The implementation of the proposed measures will significantly strengthen the competitive position of transport users along the Danube.

THE MAIN POINTS IN THE STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN

The identification of the most important barriers was based on the inputs of the stakeholders on the national level provided during the national and transnational meetings and elaborated within national / transnational reports and inputs of the users, collected by means of the state-of-the-art reporting tool. At the same time, an overview of good practices has been delivered for Inland Water Transport in the Rhine Area as well as for other modes of transport, primarily railways, by the mutual efforts of the experts engaged and all DANTE project partners.

In the process of drafting the Strategy for the improvement of the Danube IWT administration, 38 measures were identified and will help to overcome these barriers.

Measures identified in the Action Catalogue were grouped in 26 actions, making their implementation through coordinated activities much easier. It is foreseen that the “Action Catalogue” will be updated along the implementation process of the removal of the administrative barriers on the Danube IWT.

The Action Plan is organized in a way to clearly identify priorities and provide information on responsibilities for their implementation and follow-up. The aim of this document is to assign the responsibilities to the relevant actors along the Danube waterway. Beyond the actions identified in this Plan, further actions may be proposed by stakeholders. The Action Plan will serve as a catalyst to coordinate the removal of administrative barriers along the Danube and its navigable tributaries. The Action Plan will not have a dedicated budget or funding instrument, it will however help to coordinate funding sources and accompanying measures that are available.

FIRST STEPS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN

The Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council adopted ministerial conclusions on inland waterway transport on 3 December 2018. The conclusions acknowledge the significant contribution that this efficient, safe and sustainable mode of transport can make towards mitigating the negative effects of the transport sector as a whole. The conclusions recommended the application of the harmonised DAVID forms for border controls.

Key inputs to the important decisions taken at the meeting were made through the measures proposed by the Inland Waterway Transport Industry Declaration. The declaration, which is reinforcing the voice of IWT stakeholders in the decision-making process at the national and European level, was handed over by Mr. Manfred Seitz (representing Pro Danube International) to Mrs. Désirée Oen, Policy Adviser to the Rhine-Danube Coordinator, European Commission, and Mr. Norbert Hofer, the Austrian Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology during the Danube Business Talks 2018.

To achieve these goals, the Industry Declaration proposed the following actions:

1. Establish and ensure a safe and reliable waterway infrastructure
2. Execute the pre-defined TEN-T bottleneck infrastructure projects
3. Develop the Danube ports into effective centres of intermodal logistics and industrial growth
4. Facilitate the modernization of the Danube fleet
5. Reduce administrative barriers for waterborne transport

The European Commission pays high attention on the developments in the Danube waterborne sector which is materialised in having several DTP Thematic Pole 7 projects considered in the relevant policy documents. Read more on this on the DTP website.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND DISSEMINATION ON THE way

A new partner joined the DANTE network, namely MINDOP, the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic who replaced ARVD – the Agency for the Development of Water Transport.

The 4th Consortium meeting of the DANTE project and the combined 4th WPL and SCOM meeting was held on November 14-15 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event gathered around 30 experts from almost all consortium partners. The meeting included a presentation of the current stage of all 5 working packages, as well as a discussion on the definition of the monitoring methodology. As part of the meeting, participants were invited to join a public social event, organized by the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  The event, entitled “A view of the river: Danube as an Ecological Alternative for Efficient European Transport”, gathered representatives of the diplomatic corps, the legislative, executive and local authorities from Bulgaria and of the chambers of commerce.

The project and its progress was presented at several events such as the UN ECE Inland Water Transport Workshop, the EUSDR Annual Forum in Sofia, where DANTE was part of the open-air exhibition and has been awarded with the 2nd place in the DTP Photo Competition.

SAVE THE DATE FOR THE FINAL EVENT

After nearly three years of collaboration, the DANTE project is slowly coming to an end. The highlight of DANTE will be the final event held at the Danube Commission premises in Budapest, Hungary.

Save the date and join the consortium for its final event on 29 May 2019 to hear about the project’s main results, the follow-up activities, findings and learnings!

More information about the speakers, programme and registration details will be announced soon!

THE FUTURE - THE DANTE PLATFORM

DANTE will result in an active cooperation platform of key actors with the lead of the Danube Commission in order to strengthen environmentally friendly, safe and balanced transport systems with an increased share of inland waterway transport. Eliminating the barriers for the Danube IWT will not happen as a one-step approach, but needs continuous facilitation and monitoring.

Тhe facilitation of the monitoring platform will have the role to validate the Danube IWT Administration Strategy to be issued as a final output of the project. The DANTE platform will continue after the closure of the project, in order to have a permanent and durable instrument to bring together the national authorities and the IWT industrial stakeholders to discuss and mitigate the barriers (existing before and during DANTE, and new ones potentially arising after the closure of the DANTE project). It also aims to support the take-over of good practices from one geographical location to another, and / or procedures and processes from one authority to another.