Final Event of the Danube STREAM project Press release

Final Event of the Danube STREAM project in Budapest on 17 September 2019

On 17 September 2019, more than 70 participants gathered in the center of Budapest to discuss the results of the EU co-funded project Danube STREAM. For two and a half years, the waterway administrations of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria had worked in this project to improve sustainable transnational waterway management and user information.

During the event, the participants could test the new FIS Portal (www.danubeportal.com) providing actual fairway information for the Danube, from a transnational perspective. It also includes the Danube Waterway Marking Application with information on the current marking system in Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. Furthermore, the D4D portal had been relaunched (www.d4d-portal.info), offering Inland Electronic Navigational Charts for the Danube waterway further European corridors.

The participants were also informed about the close interaction with environmental stakeholders during the project. A joint Good Practice Manual on sustainable waterway management was released.

The Directors of the Danube Waterway Administration formally signed Service Level Agreements, in which they committed to certain quality levels in waterway management and user information. This shall make sure that project results remain effective also after the end of the project.

The event closed with a panel discussion, with following panel speakers: Mr. Comanici Radu, from Danube River Cruises, Mr. Skoff Gerhard, from Danube Tourist Commission, Mr. Stoean Antonio, from TTS Group, Mr. Tibor Mátyás, from DDSG Mahart and Mr. Mihailović Ljubisa, from Plovput.

The panelists discussed the potentials and needs of goods transport and passenger shipping on the Danube and reflected about the results of the Danube STREAM project. Sufficient fairway depth was mentioned to be the key issue, information services are seen as important puzzle pieces as well. Reliability, interoperability, and fast transport services were underlined to be of main interest for the users. Commitment to waterway transport from the policy side was strongly demanded.

More information and project results can be found on http://www.interreg-danube.eu/danube-stream

Common River. Common Goal

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