The European Parliament adopted earlier this year a Motion for a Resolution to urge the European Commission to update and renew the NAIADES action programme by 2020 in order to ensure that the potential of inland waterway transport (IWT) as a safe, sustainable and effective mode of transport can be fully exploited. With IWT having sufficient capacity to absorb much higher volumes of freight and passengers, the resolution calls for proactive policies aimed at supporting the sector in view of the digital, technological and environmental challenges in logistics and mobility. 

Due to its demonstrated level of expertise in the inland navigation sector and its efficiency in representating the industry in the European decision making process, Pro Danube International was invited to actively participate in a stakeholder workshop organised in Brussels, giving input especially to the thematic fields dealing with the modernisation process of the fleet and the efficient integration of IWT into logistics planing by means of digitalisation.

The core objective of this meeting was to prepare a comprehensive set of recommendations that will be adopted at the upcoming NAIADES Expert Group Meeting in order to be presented to the newly elected European Commission.