At the recent meeting of the Rhine-Danube Corridor Forum, Coordinator Ms. Ayala Sender called for concerted actions to address the climate change challenge. She emphasized the important role of the Danube River on this Corridor, being crucial to provide industry and people with essential goods and services in this area.
The Danube River plays an important role
Ms. Ayala Sender applauded the actions undertaken by the Danube states to cope with the navigability problems that occurred last summer, in the midst of the re-routing of grain and other essential goods from Ukraine. As part of the Solidarity Lanes, more than 29 Mt were exported between May 2022 and the end of February this year. Around 50% of this travelled via the Danube.
The coordinator expressed her thanks to the barge owners for the quick support within the Solidarity Lane and for making more visible the benefits of the Danube. She acknowledged that simplification of administrative procedures and the removal of administrative barriers remain a huge problem and promised support to improve the situation in the future.
The representative of the IWT platform used the opportunity to thank the Member States of this corridor for their current infrastructure works and called upon them to increase their engagement in the future. She called upon the European Commission to continue providing CEF funding for the follow-up of the flagship projects FAIRWAY and FAST.
With little investment, huge steps can be made to improve the efficiency of the Danube and corridor!
Author: Theresia Hacksteiner
