Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a political agreement on the revised River Information Services Directive on Thursday 26 June.
“Thanks to the agreement on an update of the river information systems, we will take an important step towards improving the overall functioning and safety of our European transport system”, commented Dariusz Klimczak, Poland’s Minister of Infrastructure, in a press release.
The directive aims to further harmonise the exchange of geographical, hydrological and administrative data, data relevant to navigation, instructions in case of accidents, statistics, customs services, waterway charges and port dues for those active on or managing certain cross-border inland waterways, such as canals, rivers and lakes, or their ports. It therefore has to facilitate the integration of inland waterway transport into a multimodal chain of transport modes, ensuring the uptake of digital tools and their interoperability, while monitoring data protection.
“By cutting red tape and embracing smarter traffic management, we are making inland navigation safer, greener and more efficient”, enthused European Parliament rapporteur Tom Berendsen (EPP, Dutch).
The co-legislators have agreed to establish a single digital platform (‘European RIS Environment’) to improve the efficiency of inland waterway transport operations and to manage communications on inland waterway traffic, infrastructure and transport. The new rules would apply to inland waterways and ports forming part of a cross-border network, linking at least two EU countries. As MEPs had wanted, third countries whose waterways are linked to those of the EU will also be able to use the platform, provided they comply with data quality and cybersecurity requirements. However, Russia will be excluded, given its war of aggression against Ukraine.
To enable service users to report implementation problems, the new digital platform will feature a feedback option. EU countries have committed to ensure simple, transparent and impartial follow-ups to the information that they receive in this way.
This provisional agreement on the rules still has to be approved by the EU Council and European Parliament before it comes into force. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)