The first meeting of the Danube Forum for the stakeholders of the project "Arrangement of the Drava River waterway from the mouth (rkm 0) to the Port Osijek (rkm 12)" was held in the premises of the Agency for Inland Waterways in Vukovar on 28th November 2013.
Agency for inland waterways founded the Danube Forum in 2012 in order to establish better communication between the administrations in charge of inland waterway projects on the Danube and its tributaries in accordance with the guidelines of the Platina manual on Good Practices in Sustainable Waterway Planning (The NIADES Action Programme of European Commission) and the Joint Statement on Guiding Principles for the Development of Inland Navigation and Environmental Protection in the Danube River Basin (adopted by the International Sava River Basin Commission, International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River and Danube Commission. In the Forum the active involvement of stakeholders will be achieved with full participation throughout the entire process of project planning, which will consequently lead to their direct contribution to the final outcome and plans.
Idea of the Danube Forum was accepted with great participant’s turnout who used their knowledge and information to contribute to a successful collaboration.
Besides representatives of the Agency for Inland Waterways as the holder of a future project, the Forum was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Agriculture, Croatian Waters, the State Institute for Nature Protection, the Port Authority Osijek, Port Transit Osijek, Harbour Master Office Osijek, Municipality Bilje, Croatian Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature and representatives from the Association for nature and environment Green Osijek.
The Danube Forum is of great importance for the Agency for Inland Waterways because the past practice of inland waterways project designing never involved stakeholders from different sectors of society.
All details related to the work of the Danube Forum will be regularly published on the website of the Agency for inland waterways.
