MAJOR MILESTONES REACHED - NEWSLETTER JUNE 2018 / EDITION NO. 3

26-06-2018
 
 

Overview of the project progress (October 2017 – June 2018)

 
 

The DANTE project aiming at identifying and eliminating administrative barriers for inland waterborne transport (IWT) on the Danube has reached a key milestone stage in its lifecycle, where much of the planned desk and field research has been completed and analyses of results are currently being finalized to become the base for the development of the final project outputs – the Danube IWT Administration Strategy & Action plan and the Facilitation and monitoring platform.

 

The synergy achieved between DANTE, EUSDR PA1a and the RIS COMEX project was recognized at Trans-European level and named to be one of the “Flagship initiatives“ announced at the 2018 TEN-T Days in Ljubljana on 26 April 2018. A key result of the cooperation is the technical finalisation of the DAVID - Danube Navigation Standard Forms.

 

The Transnational IWT barrier reporting tool which was launched in September 2017 is now actively used by Danube river stakeholders to report on administrative barriers they have encountered, but also to name positive experiences.

 

The analysis of existing procedures (laws & regulations) and administrative processes on a national level have been completed for all Danube countries, results matched with the inputs from the barrier reporting tool and consolidated in a report in order to provide a base for the elaboration of guidelines and recommendations for improving the processes.

 

The second round of national working table meetings (NWTM) was held, where a total of more than 250 participants from 6 countries discussed in a cooperative manner how the barriers can be mitigated in a mutually beneficial way. National country reports were elaborated based on the analyses of the procedures and results from the NWTM which are currently being processed into a consolidated report.

 

Four transnational working group meetings were held in Budapest (24 Oct 2017), Galati (06 Dec 2017), Karlsruhe (24 April 2018) and Bratislava (14 June 2018) to start the implementation and capitalization of the outcomes. Being organized closely together with the EUSDR PA1a, they gathered expert decision makers in order to cumulate the results of the national meetings and the barrier database and acted as a key step in achieving harmonized regulations and simplified administrative processes in IWT resulting in less time loss and lower costs.

 

A report on identification of good practices in the Rhine IWT and other modes of transport was released in the last days of June 2018, where applicable inputs shall be derived and customized to add recommendations for improvement to the Danube Region IWT.

 

Two major goals are still ahead for the DANTE partners – the development of the Administration strategy and action plan and Facilitation and monitoring platform. The first instruments shall define the path for the relevant authorities to harmonize the regulations and establish a stable, predictable and plannable framework for IWT in the Danube Region on a transnational basis. The durable cooperation platform shall ensure the continuous facilitation and monitoring in order to increase IWT´s share in modal split to the proper level, contributing to the EUSDR and DTP goals and objectives.

 

DANTE success stories AND PROMOTION

 

 

 

 

Even though there is yet another year to go, the DANTE project has already started producing tangible results such as the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ruse, Bulgaria), whose involvement in the project has delivered two practical results: a successful mediation between national authorities in Bulgaria for preliminary agreement on the DAVID forms and the abolishment of an unnecessary form requested to be filled due to a mistake in the national system for electronic processing of documents (Single Window).

 

The DANTE project has been promoted at the 2017 & 2018 edition of the Danube Transport Day in the European Parliament in Brussels. DANTE was high on the agenda at the INternational Shipping Congress in Budapest and at the Danube SKILLS event on Synergetic projects in Constanta.

 

capitalisation of the results

 

 

 

 

 

We, as DANTE partners, are proud to announce that the project is recognized as one of the strategic instruments of the Danube Transnational Programme for reaching the goals of the EUSDR. It was included in the DTP Post 2020 Campaign and became one of the four projects selected to convey the message on how important the transnational cooperation is.

Read more

 

DANTE was also presented in the “Real people - Real stories” pilot project of the Danube Transnational Programme which aims to introduce the DTP funded initiatives through their target beneficiaries. The “real” DANTE story is illustrated through the eyes of actual Danube river users, who comment on the challenges they face with administrative procedures and what benefits we will all get from them being simplified and harmonized.

Read more

 

DANTE releases the first main findings from national country reports

 

Country reports were produced for Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. In addition to the thorough analyses of the applicable local legislation and procedures, they also summarized the type of barriers that were mentioned the most by the Danube river stakeholders. The main findings include:

 

  • Lack of standardization and unified regulations even on national level
  • High time consumption and too many documents
  • Staff shortage, leading to long waiting times
  • Non-transparent and inconsistent charging policies among Danube countries
  • Inconvenient work schedules of ports and customs, which causes long waiting times
  • No generally accepted working language along the Danube countries 
  • Insufficient infrastructure and equipment as an obstacle for efficient processes
  • Insufficient fairway conditions due to the lack of maintenance works
  • Lack of qualified personnel and mutual recognition of documents
  • Information gaps: Lack of information causes inefficiency

 

The DANTE consortium will further work on these topics among others in the forthcoming one year of the project lifetime.

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 
 

 

The following events will be relevant occasions to meet the DANTE project:

 
 
 
 
 

Managing Authority | Joint Secretariat
Széchenyi István tér 7-8 - 1051 Budapest, Hungary
E-mail: danube@interreg-danube.eu  | Web: www.interreg-danube.eu

 

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Programme co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI)