JOINT STATEMENT ON INLAND NAVIGATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL [616318]

JOINT STATEMENT ON INLAND NAVIGATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY IN THE DANUBE RIVER BASIN

April 25 – 26, 2007 Orth an der Donau, Austria

Facts and Perspectives of European Inland Waterway
Transport – Focus on the Danube River Basin
Otto Schwetz, Ma nager of Corridor VII – Danube

As global freight transport volumes have increased, the external costs of traffic
congestion, accidents, air pollution and noise have become more apparent, not only as
an issue of concern for the quality of life, but also wi th respect to their potential for
disrupting economic growth and mobility. As a result, one of the major challenges
facing the transportation industry is the need to introduce a more efficient, modally
integrated service, which utilizes spare capacity in o ther modes.

In this context, the EU initiative to promote alternative modes to road transport in
order to alleviate road congestion, inland waterway transport and sea/river transport
are considered as priorities in achieving the above goal. Navigation in the Danube
should be seen in the above light. Moreover, inland waterway transport and sea/river
transport are part of the EU initiative for promotion of short sea shipping, the
“Motorways of the Seas”.

Today, when the combined transport techniques have p rogressed so much, inland
waterways can be used in the most efficient way. Their low external cost of transport,
including the environmental benefits, can provide the critical factor to make an inland
waterway route attractive. In this respect, Corridor VI I, the Danube, can be seen as a
very important transport artery, and as a route, efficiently incorporated in the logistics
chains of many alternative origins/ destinations, from the Black Sea to the heart of
Europe and the Atlantic, and vice -versa.

Howeve r, promotion of the Rhine/Danube waterway is an alternative not only in
alleviating road transport but also in alleviating sea transport through the highly
congested Bosporus straits.

There are several obstacles, i.e. "bottlenecks", connected with the n avigation in the
Danube, which prevent it from playing the role that it deserves and deploying its full
potential. The Commission stated that: " Infrastructure and legal problems regarding
navigation on the Danube should be dealt with as a matter of priorit y in order to
render it a major inland waterway to the common benefit of the EU ". Is to be

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considered, that the total length of the bottleneck – sections is altogether only 300 km
from 2400 km navigable fairway of the Danube.

The optimization of the tra nsport along Danube is dependent on a number of factors,
which are interdependent and must be analyzed. Improving the navigation conditions
for the majority of the cargoes transported on the Danube will only be beneficial if
several issues are addressed

• Physical improvements of the river (through going depth, removal of shallow –
narrow sections).
• Physical improvements to ports
• Improvements to shipyards
• Improvements to fleets
• Improvements to operations
• Institutional and legal issues.

As a consequence of th e war in former Yugoslavia in the nineties, most of the
riparian countries pay less attention to shipping than they normally would. The East
European riparian countries were not really able to compensate for the losses caused
by the slow, unreliable and ex pensive transport through the Yugoslavian section of
the Danube. These events greatly affected the process of transformation of the
shipping industry and greatly prevented a quick and successful transformation of the
related services.

The inland waterway transport sector could capture cargoes from the road and rail
sector provided that the service levels are improved. This can be achieved by, inter –
alia, improving navigational conditions on the Danube. Economic developments in
the region are promising, wi th the consequence, that the need for transport increases
accordingly.

Traffic potential for the Danube may be considered as relatively high, because
transport demand in the corridor is high, and the road network cannot absorb
substantial new traffic beca use of its present saturation level. But waterway transport
catches only the additional transport volume, which appears through the upcoming
economies in the Danube basin and the increasing cargo volumes coming from Asia.
It is to notice, that the inland navigation is therefore not a competition especially for
the railways.
If an important transport demand exists for low value bulk commodities, there is also
a growing demand for general cargo that can be transported in containers or RoRo
vessels. This po tential new traffic could be diverted to the Danube only if investments
are made in order to transport these products efficiently.

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It has been estimated that, if no major investment is made to improve navigation
conditions on the Danube, to adapt port inf rastructures and equipment to new
transport demands (containers, RoRo) or to increase the efficiency of port operations,
the traffic volume would increase slowly at an average rate of 1.4% per year. If some
small size investments are realised to increase t he efficiency of river transport and
transhipments, and if most of the institutional and legal problems are gradually
eliminated, traffic volume may increase at an average rate of 3% per year. If further
actions are undertaken the traffic is forecasted to increase at a rate of 6% per year for
the short and medium terms, and 3.5% per year afterwards.

There are many sources of potential financial assistance for the implementation of the
required actions on the Danube River. Overall, according to reasonable estimates in
order to improve the navigability of the Danube € 1,4 billion will be required.

It is stated very often, that inland navigation is the most environmentally transport
mode. If we check the SO² production on the distance between Constantza and
Vienna we find the following figures:
Inland Vessel: 349 kg CO²/TEU
Rail: 567 kg CO²/TEU ( + 62% compared to vessel)
Road: 933 kg CO²/TEU ( +167% compared to vessel )
On the other hand, in the last decade, national and international environmental
initiatives have tried to remedy the environmental degradation of the Danube. The
actions undertaken so far, especially the International Convention for the Protection
of the Danube River have proved to be not so sufficient till now to reverse the
environm ental degradation and health problems. The main constraint appears to be
that the Danube “hot spots" do not yet figure prominently in the national public
investment priorities, nor are they part of comprehensive and sound strategies at
national level. Ther efore, there is a need for strengthened action to restore the
environment of the region to a state that is acceptable for the people to live in. Out of
this reason inland navigation is not an “enemy” to achieve this goal. Even if the
riverbed has to be tou ched, it is always to take into consideration how the total
environmentally balance looks like, if the SO² impact is reduced dramatically.

Corridor VII: The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the development of the
Pan-European Transport Corridor VII – the Danube (the document was signed in
Rotterdam, on 6/9/2001, between Transport Ministers of 10 European countries)
highlights the need to strengthen the connections of the Danube with the Ten’s and
the Black Sea. This MoU describes the intentions for a series of actions to be
undertaken in order to achieve this goal.

The ultimate political goal is certainly the close linking of the Corridor VII to the rest
of the Pan -European transport system. Thus, the optimisation of the Danube transport

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is of major i mportance. However, the Danube is not only to be considered as Corridor
VII and as such an integral part of the Pan -European Network; it is also a multi –
modal transport corridor, and a link to other Corridors.

The development of Corridor VII -the Danube – is highly affected by the cooperation
with the other multi -modal Transport Corridors. Inland waterway transport is, in
essence, a multi -modal form where the operation to be carried out is in fact a chain in
which each of the links contributes to the end r esult. More than other modes, inland
waterway transport is therefore dependent on a development strategy, which supposes
simultaneous removal of the various barriers and coherent development of the entire
system. Action must therefore be taken to ensure fu ller integration of the modes
offering considerable potential transport capacity as links in an efficiently managed
transport chain joining up all the individual services.

The improvement of the Danube as a main transport artery of Europe is also a centra l
theme of the “Danube Co -operation Process (DCP)” which was started by a
ministerial meeting in Vienna on May 27, 2002, continued by ministerial meetings
2004 in Bucharest and on April 18, 2007 in Belgrade. It was agreed, that the Danube
as a cost -efficie nt and ecologically sustainable major European transport corridor
should be used to its full capacity. For that purpose it would be necessary i.e. to:

• Set up National action Plans according to the NAIADES Programme of the
European Union as it was done b y Austria last year.

• improve navigability, thus allowing an uninterrupted passage (priority to be
put on the “bottle necks” between Straubing and Vilshofen, between Vienna and the
Austrian -Slovak border, Palcikovo – Mohács and the border section between
Romania and Bulgaria).

• invest in Danube ports with a view to establishing multimodal centers for
cargo distribution in accordance with the UN -ECE agreement on European inland
waterways (AGN).

• set up a River Information Service (RIS).

• fund projects in tegrating inland navigation into the transport chain of different
modes by intermodal nods.

• improve customs procedures, according to the proposals of the Danube
Commission

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• harmonise the regulative systems on the Danube and the Rhine.

In this process o f the current seminar it is necessary to have in mind that we find
different layers, but to concentrate on the basic layer of infrastructure and
maintenance and how to find common principles and planning criteria.

And at least it is to mention, that somet imes it happens, that measures done for inland
navigation are also for benefit for the environment.
.