Will the development of inland navigation be one of the EU’s next transport battles? The European Commission should in any case be moving in this direction with its new strategy for sustainable mobility, which will be unveiled on Wednesday 9 December.
This is also the wish of Dutch MEP Caroline Nagtegaal, a former employee of the Rotterdam Port Authority (HbR) and now vice-coordinator of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport. Ms Nagtegaal co-signed a position paper on the subject on 27 November. A document which she hopes to be able to submit to MEPs in 2021 as an own-initiative report.
“This is not a subject that is particularly considered, in Brussels, or at the level of the Member States, not even at the local level in some cases”, Caroline Nagtegaal regretted in an interview with EUROPE.
Already in 2015, the European Court of Auditors pointed to a cruel lack of improvement and to rather weak European strategies for inland navigation.
“Today we are aiming to reduce our emissions by 90% by 2050 and the inland waterway sector can play a major role in this transition, provided it is encouraged”, the MEP added.
As she points out in her position paper, more than 37,000 kilometres of waterways link hundreds of EU cities and industrial regions and the largest models of inland waterway vessels can handle the freight of 660 transport trucks at a time.
Freight by inland waterway would furthermore represent a saving of about 65% of energy compared to road freight (see EUROPE 12606/11).
Seven Pillars
“We therefore need a comprehensive European strategy and a collective effort”, argues Ms Nagtegaal, who proposes in her paper to tackle the problem with seven “pillars”.
She calls, first of all, to ensure the transfer of freight transport from road to inland waterways and the modernisation and greening of fleets. The majority of vessels in the EU were built before 2000. And prior to 2003, there were no provisions for emission limits for their engines.
She then advocates for the digitalisation of the sector “for greener but also safer transport”, the transformation of ports into “clean energy hubs” and the evolution of the training system.
The last two pillars, finally, concern passenger transport by inland waterway and the financing of the sector.
“Of course, significant funding will be needed to support this transition. However, it is not a question of having a higher budget, but a more modern budget. We need to set priorities”, the MEP said, arguing in particular for a financing system for shipbuilders.
“What we are finding is that the sector is essentially based on family businesses. It is sometimes quite difficult for them to access funding”, she adds.
In relation to the Commission
Asked about her expectations of the von der Leyen Commission’s mobility strategy, Caroline Nagtegaal said she was “very optimistic”. She explained that she had been in contact with the office of the Commissioner responsible for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, who also contributed to the development of the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.
This summer, one of the Commissioner’s staff even took part in discussions organised by Ms Nagtegaal with the sector.
According to the preliminary draft of the strategy, of which EUROPE has obtained a copy (see EUROPE 12616/12), it would appear that the issues have been somewhat heard. Indeed, the Commission should commit itself to launching the third strand of the European Naiades programme, dedicated to inland navigation, in 2021 and to proposing measures on electronic documents for crews and inland waterway vessels in the same year.
It is also expected to announce the establishment of European manning requirements for inland navigation in 2023-2024.
Consult the position paper: https://bit.ly/2JCpzIt (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)