NAIADES III Rhine -Alpine Talks-16 April 2021 - Hugues Van Honacker Senior Expert - EGTC Rhine Alpine

Rhine –Alpine Talks–16 April 2021

     NAIADES III

       Hugues Van Honacker

           Senior Expert
  Ports and Inland Navigation Unit

  European Commission - DG MOVE

              Mobility and
              Transport

Inland Waterways

• Small, but important mode for the EU.
Inland navigation is:
• Energy efficient: a typical pushed convoy of
  4 barges in the Rhine or Danube equals the
  capacity of 440 trucks on the road;
• Low noise, by nature – important in ports-
  cities;
• Low CO2 emissions compared to road;
• 10 000 companies in Europe, many of which
  are SMEs. The sector creates over 44.000 jobs
  in freight and passenger transport.

                                 Mobility
                                 and
                                 Transport

Inland Waterways

Small, but important mode for the EU:

• About 150 billion tkm per year

• About 6% of inland freight transport

• 13% increase of passenger cruise
  transport

Some 25 out of 27 Member States have
inland waterways, 13 of which have
interconnected waterway networks.

                           Mobility and
                           Transport

EU IW transport performance

             Mobility and
             Transport

EU Governance
•   DG MOVE D3 : manage 12 IWT legislations (DG GROW : 1 and DG EMPL: 1 )
•   Several Commission Expert groups were created in 2018
    •   Naiades Expert group
    •   Social expert group
    •   Technical requirements for vessels expert group
    •   DINA/RIS expert group

    Constituted with EU MS, River Commissions , IWT stakeholders, UNECE

    Role: To make recommendations on EU IWT policy issues
    Transparency: Publication on
    https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/

                                      Mobility and
                                      Transport

NAIADES: EU Inland Navigation Policy

    NAIADES II (2014-2020) A high-quality transport mode
•   Infrastructure
•   Innovation
•   Smooth functioning of the market
•   Environmental performance through low emissions
•   Skilled workforce and quality jobs
•   Integration into the multimodal logistics chain
    •   Digital Inland Navigation Area (DINA)
•   A new European IWT governance

Mid-Term report adopted in Sept 2018

                                     Mobility and
                                     Transport

Digitalisation
Challenges related to digitalisation of IWT

•   Negative consequences of the lack of digitalisation (in terms of
    competitiveness, safety, environment...)

•   Obstacles or difficulties to further digitalisation of the sector, e.g. personal
    privacy

                                        Mobility and
                                        Transport

Naiades III
• This initiative aims to set an “Inland Navigation Action Plan 2021-2027”, aligned
  to the new multi-annual financial framework to meet objectives of the green deal
  and strategy and will focused on:

     (A) moving more transport by inland waterways

     (B) a gradual shift towards zero emission inland vessels

     (C) reinforcing incentives

• To meet the three core challenges mentioned above it is proposed to have an
  integrated action plan with identified relevant action areas such as:

     • Fleet

     • Infrastructure

     • Digitalisation

     • Crew
                                       Mobility and
                                       Transport

Relevant actions areas (1)

• 1.     Fleet: significantly reduce the current dependence on fossil fuels
  enabling the transition towards zero-emission vessels and
  decarbonisation of the fleet by 2050 while safeguarding competitiveness
  and safety. This should be done by mobilising research & deployment
  financing support and foster innovations through the review of the
  directive 2016/1629. A clear EU methodology for assessing the C02
  emission level of inland vessels needs to be developed. The evaluation
  of the Market access regulations will start in 2021. A new combined
  transport will be proposed in 2022.

                                  Mobility and
                                  Transport

Relevant actions areas (2)
• 2.     Infrastructure: achieve the continuous and reliable navigability of
  the trans-European inland waterway network and ensure swift links to
  other modes while assuring sustainability of infrastructure, protecting
  the environment and adapting to climate change. This can be achieved
  through (i) clearer and flexible technical requirements for
  infrastructure, (ii) a reinforced role of the European Coordinators for
  better coordination of national /corridor plans and (iii) continuous
  support aimed at improving the quality of the inland ports infrastructure
  to become new clean energy hubs for low-carbon fuels, and testbeds for
  waste reuse and the circular economy as well as their multimodal
  connections.

                                    Mobility and
                                    Transport

Relevant actions areas (3)

• 3.     Digitalisation: develop and use digitalisation as an instrument to
  support the developments towards smart and sustainable jobs, fleet and
  infrastructure connected to other transport modes. The possible revision
  of the River Information Services (RIS) directive and a proposal for
  electronic tools to record and exchange information on crew and vessels
  will contribute to reinforce the digitalisation of the sector to foster
  multimodality.

• 4.     Crew: create an attractive work place with high social,
  qualification, safety and security standards aiming at more EU
  harmonisation

                                   Mobility and
                                   Transport

Other Relevant actions areas (4)

• Reinforcing incentives to increase the use of inland waterways
  transport. These incentives to be put in place are mainly financial on the
  elimination of price distortions and concern in particular carbon pricing,
  taxation, and infrastructure charging, but should be complemented by
  improved information to users.

• Governance: Main question: how to simplify the complex governance in
  the EU? (CCNR, DC, CESNI, CDNI, UNECE). How to increase efficiency of
  art 218(9) procedure of the treaty?

                                    Mobility and
                                    Transport

International Governance
•   Several bodies in Europe with overlapping competences:
    •   European Union
    •   CCNR (Rhine)
    •   Danube Commission (and navigable tributaries)
    •   UN-ECE
•   Creation of CESNI (Comité Européen pour des Standards en Navigation
    Intérieure)
•   Major shift in governance, already enshrined in two EU directives
    •   Technical requirements for vessels – adopted 2016
    •   Professional qualifications –adopted at the end of 2017
    •   Information Technology, including RIS standards from 2020
•   Daily cooperation between European Commission, CCNR and other river
    commissions over the past few years But enormous potential for
    integration and simplification

                                    Mobility and
                                    Transport

EXPECTATIONS FROM Platina III

•   Support the implementation for Naiades III Expect flexibility all along the
    project
•   Eu roadmap for AF technology and C02 methodology including labelling
    and monitoring  propose an regulatory instrument
•   Clear vision for the digitalisation for the sector (instruments needed, how
    the different instruments are interlinked)
•   Support innovative skills and educational tools (+automation and
    manning?)
•   Support the evaluation of directive 2016/1629
•   Support the impact assessment of Directive 2005/44/EC on RIS
•   ….

                                     Mobility and
                                     Transport

Thank you for your attention

Hugues.van-honacker@ec.europa.eu
          Senior Expert

             Mobility and
             Transport