"Ship vs River" by Wien International

Part one of our two-part article on Wien Internatinal.at looks at the Danube from a historical and political point of view. (Part 2 here)

"The Danube has always been among Europe’s main waterways. The river used to be one of the borders of the Roman Empire, facilitating the supply of Roman border posts. Some centuries later, the Danube continued to be of vital economic and political importance – downstream during the Christian crusades or upstream during the campaigns of the Ottoman army. [...] The shipping sector is annoyed over the fact that the river running through this beautiful landscape is by no means fully navigable along its entire length. Rocky fords, sandbanks, steep bends and above all a total of 20 barrages pose obstacles to traffic on the river even along the 2,414-km stretch of the Danube between Kelheim (Germany) and Sulina (Romania), which is navigable by large cargo ships"

The Danube countries pledged their commitment to the “effective waterway infrastructure maintenance on the Danube and its navigable tributaries” in the Luxembourg Declaration of 7 June 2012. The political and historical background is the so-called Belgrade Convention of 1948, which stipulates that “the Danube riparian states undertake to maintain their sections of the Danube in a navigable condition for river-going and, on the appropriate sections, for sea-going vessels, to carry out the works necessary for the maintenance and improvement of navigation conditions and not to obstruct or hinder navigation on the navigable channels of the Danube“ (Art. 3). Future-oriented initiatives are being developed under the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (in the framework of the Europe 2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth) and the “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area” that Austria has signed up for by federal minister Doris Bures in June 2012.

In response to questions on the Danube waterway by wieninternational.at, Christian Salzmann, the spokesperson of the regional government of Lower Austria, provides his comments by using a very “future-oriented terminology”... Regarding content, the statement of the regional government of Lower Austria may be interpreted as follows:

– A well-functioning infrastructure is considered a prerequisite for boosting cargo capacity and demand; therefore all the “countries along the Danube must do what needs to be done.“
– The Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology as well as via donau (Austria’s waterway management and development company) have launched the “Integrated River Engineering Project for the Danube east of Vienna” to redress ecological problems as well as to improve navigation conditions near the Danube Flood Plains National Park. This project is a pilot phase, as remarked above.
– The ecoplus Logistics Cluster was established to serve as an information hub and project platform for Lower Austrian companies.
– High & Heavy. The Ennshafen port in Lower Austria (H2E) is a relevant project; its aim is to develop a comprehensive concept for a heavy cargo port on the Danube river.