EC Working Group on Rivers 19 th of February 2009 Inland waterways transport on the river Danube via donau I 2 European transport policy framework EC Guidelines for the Development of the Trans-European Transport Network TENT (2004) Lisbon strategy on sustainable growth and employment in Europe (Mid-term review 2005) EC Transport White Paper (Mid-term review 2006) NAIADES European Action Programme for inland waterway transport (2006) EU enlargement and European neighbourhood policy: EC guidelines for transport in Europe and neighbouring regions (Building bridges 2007) EC project PLATINA - Platform for the implementation of NAIADES (2008) via donau I 3 The political dimension: The waterway Danube as an integrative element within an enlarged European Union About 90 million inhabitants live in the Danube region, producing a gross domestic product (GDP) of about 450 billion Since the last EU-enlargement of 2007 six riparian countries are EU members (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania) Croatia and Serbia have short- resp. mid-term EU accession perspective European Commission via donau I 4 The Danube is the most international river of the world (10 riparian countries) The Danube is the 2nd longest river of Europe (2.850 km entire length) The Danube has a navigable length of km, wherefrom km (48%) are border sections The international dimension of the river Danube via donau (Manual on Danube Navigation) via donau I 5 General information on the waterway Danube Navigable length of the river Danube km between Kelheim and Sulina 1992 opening of the Main-Danube channel: direct connection to the river Rhine, linking the North Sea with the Black Sea Different hydro-morphological conditions along the Danube river (incline, flow velocity, water volume, etc.) leading to different conditions for navigation via donau I 6 Average incline: Upper Danube: 0,20-0,45 (Kelheim Gny) Middle Danube: 0,06 (Gny Iron Gate 1) Lower Danube: 0,05-0,01 (Iron Gate 1 Sulina) Average water discharge: Pfelling 459 m3/s Vienna: m 3 /s Budapest: m3/s Belgrad: m3/s Danube Delta: m3/s ICPDR (Danube Basin Analyses WFD Roof Report 2004) The river Danube: Basic characteristics via donau I 7 Goods transport on the river Danube 2007 Total commercial goods transport volume on the Danube 2007: 39.2 million tons Transport performance on the river Danube: Average transport distance on the Danube = about 750 km Transport performance: 39.2 x 750 = 29.4 billion tonne-kilometers Transport performance on the river Rhine: Annual Transport volume: about 300 million tons Average transport distance on the Rhine = about 300 km Transport performance: 300 x 300 = 90 billion tonne-kilometers Comparison Danube Rhine: Transport volume ratio Danube Rhine = 1 : 7,5 Transport performance ratio Danube Rhine = 1 : 3 via donau I 8 The river Danube as important element of the Trans- European Transport Network TENT Planned infrastructure projects Germany: Straubing Vilshofen (Danube km 2321 km 2249) Austria: Vienna cross border section with Slovakia (Danube km 1921 km 1873) Hungary: Palkovicovo Mohacs (Danube km 1810 km 1433) Bulgaria - Romania: Iron Gate II Calarasi (Danube km 863 km 375) Romania: Calarasi Braila (Danube km 375 km 175) via donau I 9 Long-term analysis of the water discharge of the river Danube at Vienna: Days/year with discharge < 900 m3/s Year Days per year via donau I 10 Effects of the removal of infrastructure bottlenecks on the river Danube Improved competitiveness of IWT on the river Danube compared to the road higher average utilisation rates of existing Danube fleet better reliability and price-performance ratio of waterway transport operations Savings on external costs of transport: reduction of CO2-emissions reduction of accident cost reduction of congestion costs reduction of noise reduction of space consumption via donau I 11 Interdependency of utilization degree of vessels and freight rate Source: Vaart! freight index, the Dutch Internet portal for inland navigation:Low water periods (as in autumn 2003) lead to lower utilization degrees of vessels and herewith to higher transport costs and prices via donau I 12 CO 2 emissions of inland waterway transport Example transport relation Constanta Vienna: CO 2 emissions caused by the transport of one container (TEU): Danube: 349 kg CO 2 / TEU (100%) Rail: 567 kg CO 2 / TEU (162%) Road: 933 kg CO 2 / TEU (267%) CSCT Constantza South Container Terminal via donau I 13 Operational costs of representative vessel formations at different draught PLANCO (Verkehrswirtschaftlicher und kologischer Vergleich der Verkehrstrger, 2007) Draught [cm) via donau I 14 Strengthening of Danube navigation needs overall improvement of framework conditions European Action Programme NAIADES and implementation plattform PLATINA National action plans resp. activities of Danube countries required bmvit, Austrian Action Plan Danube Navigation via donau I 15 Conclusions The Danube river basin is an important European region with different socio-economic and political framework conditions Inland waterway transport on the Danube has an important integrative function within the European transport system Elimination of infrastructure bottlenecks on the Danube river: Different problems and framework conditions require different solutions European guidance for the correct application of legislative environmental framework conditions is very useful Integrated actions, international cooperation and active national policies are needed to maintain and restore the Danube as a natural living space and habitat as well as a European transport axis! via donau I 16 DI Markus Simoner via donau sterreichische Wasserstraen-Gesellschaft mbH A-1220 Wien, Donau-City-Strae 1 Tel , Fax