European experts stressed the importance of infrastructure and interconnection in the development of river freight in the EU, at a meeting organised by Voies navigables de France and co-hosted by MEPs Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, French) and Caroline Nagtegaal (Renew Europe, Dutch) on Thursday 16 November at the European Parliament.
“We need quality infrastructure, and regenerating infrastructure is essential for professionals and businesses”, said Jean-Marc Samuel, from the NGO Agir pour le fluvial.
Hugues Van Honacker, inland waterways expert at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), pointed out that the development of river freight had been a priority for the Commission for several years. The Commission adopted a plan in June 2021, as well as an action programme to be implemented by 2027 (see EUROPE 13004/26). The expert called on the Member States to make progress on the revision of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), currently being discussed in trilogue (see EUROPE 13293/10).
Mr Van Honacker also spoke of the need to improve interconnection and multimodality, in particular through digitalisation. He announced that the next European Commission should propose an initiative on this subject. “We have to act, otherwise we’ll lag behind”, he said.
For Didier Leandri, President of Entreprises fluviales de France and Vice-President of the European Barge Union, which represents users of Europe’s inland waterways, the sector needs to become more intermodal and more competitive. “We need to address the competitiveness of the industry: shipments do not shift (to rivers) for greening reason, but because the alternative is competitive”, he said.
“We have lost points of competitivity because of over-regulation”, he deplored, calling on legislators to pay attention. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)