GRENDEL - Towards quality inland waterway transport – State of Play
27-09-2018
The European Commission published last week a mid-term report on the EU inland waterway action programme - also known as NAIADES II - and a report on digital inland navigation (DINA).
The NAIADES II progress report highlights that most of the foreseen actions regarding regulations, policy and financing have been achieved and it further identifies on-going actions until 2020 for further implementation of the NAIADES II programme. The report specifically focused on the six key areas of intervention:
- Quality infrastructure
- Quality through innovation
- Smooth functioning of the market
- Environmental quality through low emissions
- Skilled workforce and quality jobs
- Integration of inland navigation into the multimodal logistics chain
The NAIADES II progress report closely addresses the topics that are in the focus of the GRENDEL project.
The report acknowledges that the innovative projects are emerging locally with new-build activities, however mainly in the passenger sector. The report as well summarises variety of innovation dedicated projects funded by Horizon 2020 (PLATINA II, PROMINENT, NOVIMAR or Watertruck+), CEF funded project PORT-LINER to electrify vessels with battery swapping technology as well as European Inland Barging Innovation Platform (EIBIP) aiming to support and provide the assistance to suppliers and users of the innovative technologies in the sector. The report as well concludes that “more generally innovation remains limited, and one of the main challenges for inland navigation in the coming years will be to foster more widespread innovation taken up within the market, such as innovative measures aimed at reducing emissions from inland navigation transport.”
With respect to the new Non-road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) Regulation approved in September 2016, the report emphasises that “public authorities, whether at EU, national, regional or local level, will need to step up their efforts to support the greening of the inland navigation sector, and in particular the use of alternative fuels”.
It is not only to ensure the necessary alternative fuels infrastructure is in place in line with the requirements of the Directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure. [The Directive also applies to the inland navigation sector: it requires the building-up of an appropriate amount of LNG infrastructure by 2030, along the main European waterways.].
The Commission assesses the compatibility of State aid for cleaning the inland waterway fleet directly on the basis of Article 93 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which allows aid for the coordination of transport. The Article 93 TFEU implies an intervention by public authorities which is aimed at guiding the development of the sector in the common interest. “In this regard, the Commission notes that measures for coordinating transport may be needed when certain modes of transport do not bear the costs of the negative externalities which they impose on society. Compared to road transport, which is often confronted with congestion and pollution problems, inland waterway transport is recognised as an environmentally-friendly and reliable alternative to road transport. Therefore, the Commission believes that promoting a shift from road to inland waterway transport contributes to an objective of common interest. Adapting vessels to reduce their environmental footprint, for example with measures to (i) reduce pollution, (ii) optimise energy on board vessels or (iii) treat waste on board vessels, has generally been recognised as contributing to an objective of common interest.”
One of the main objectives of the GRENDEL project is to elaborate the Model State Aid for the modernisation of the Danube fleet based on the real technological and financial requirements of the Danube vessel fleets owners and operators. The national ministries of the Danube countries will make use this Model State Aid scheme and implement it in the upcoming budgetary period 2001-2007 to support the fleet operators in greening & modernisation of their fleets. The State Aids (where applicable) are supposed to be back-financed from the EU Structural Funds.
About NAIADES II
The NAIADES II action programme aims at creating the conditions for inland navigation transport to become a quality mode of transport. It was announced in 2013.
More information (as published by EC)
