As of 1 January 2017, a transnational consortium of 16 co-funded organisations and 12 associated strategic partners (public authorities, consulting companies, universities and NGOs) from 10 European countries has started the implementation the DANTE project. DANTE aims at identifying and eliminating administrative barriers for inland waterway transport (IWT) on the Danube and its navigable tributaries as a joint initiative of the private sector and the national public authorities responsible for these barriers. This shall lead into a better governance & management of this environmentally-friendly European core transport infrastructure and reduce the logistics costs of major industries depending on waterway transportation for their global competitiveness.      

The work of DANTE shall result in reduced time losses and costs caused by ineffective administrative regulations & processes which generate unnecessary financial burden for Danube businesses. This will be achieved in cooperative meetings with public authorities to develop and implement simplified administrative procedures & processes for IWT operations. DANTE outcomes shall strengthen the competitive position of companies using the Danube and its navigable tributaries in their logistic chain, thus contributing to economic growth and the creation of jobs in the region by increased efficient public administration. These achievements together can lead to a better position of inland waterway transport in the modal split by fostering the channelling of the growing transport demand into IWT as the environmentally-friendly low-carbon mode of transportation. One of the most important outputs of the project is the transnational IWT barrier and good practice reporting tool which sets the background to collect inputs from the IWT stakeholders. This innovative, multi-language tool enables the state-of-the-art way of mapping the every-day barriers of the actors in IWT and results in a database that will work as basis for the analysis and recommendations.

Thirty months of pioneering work are lying ahead of the DANTE consortium (January 2017-June 2019) under the coordination of Pro Danube International as lead partner.

The total budget of the project is 1.982.786 Euro, out of which the ERDF contribution amounts to 1.650.134,75 Euro & the IPA contribution amounts to 35.233,35 Euro.

Follow DANTE project on social media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/INDanube/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/INDanube
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8560850