Brussels, 05/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Ministers of the countries through which the Danube flows have pledged to rehabilitate the river and maintain it for river transport. They met in Brussels on Wednesday 3 December, to adopt conclusions detailing their commitments to observe the plan laid down for this purpose in the framework of the macro-strategy for the Danube.
National and cross-border actions will be undertaken next year to ensure a return of optimum and safe river transport conditions on the Danube. The Austrian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Moldovan, Romanian, Slovakian and Ukrainian ministers made a formal commitment to this end. Serbia will join them at a later date, and possibly Hungary, which supports the initiative, as well.
The European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, who has been made aware of the problems faced by operators when transporting cargo on the river, welcomed this signature. She was joined in this by her colleague, Corina Cretu, who also attended the signing ceremony, where she had good news to announce: a recent study by the Commission indicates that increasing cargo transport on the Danube could bring more than 8,000 jobs to the regions concerned. “And improving conditions for cruise and leisure ships could bring even more than that”, she added. (MD)