Sava Commission hosts 14^th Joint Statement Meeting (Zagreb, 13-14 September 2023)

The 14^th Follow-up Meeting to the Joint Statement (JS) on Guiding Principles for the Development of Inland Navigation and Environmental Protection in the Danube Region took place in Zagreb on 13 and 14 September 2023. A large number of participants, including representatives of the European Commission, international organizations, national transport and environmental institutions, project team representatives, water management authorities and NGOs took part in the meeting.

The event was hosted by the Sava River Basin Commission (ISRBC) in a hybrid format, with over 50 participants. The Danube Commission (DC), together with ISRBC and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) supported by the European Commission, as well as national authorities and non-governmental organisations, held fruitful debates on the protection of the riverine eco-system while at the same time improving conditions for inland waterway shipping.

One of the main items on the agenda was the planned revision and re-launch of the JS, which dates back to 2007/2008, to reflect the new challenges for sustainable waterways management in light of climate change and the European Union’s ambitious climate and mobility goals. The three commissions proposed a roadmap for the renewal of the JS document and its accompanying guidelines, known as the 2010 Platina Manual. The new JS, which renews the commitment of all stakeholders to work closely together to simultaneously achieve good navigational and environmental status, is expected to be adopted by the end of 2024/early 2025. The Platina Manual will be further developed into an interactive knowledge management system to support the work of waterway managers and all professionals involved in sustainable dynamic river management and related infrastructure projects.

Other topics of the meeting included the current status of EU inland navigation and environmental policies through presentations by representatives of EC/DG MOVE and EC/DG ENV, status reports on important integrated projects and a special session on the latest developments in inland navigation in the Sava River.

The next JS meeting will be hosted by ICPDR in Vienna and is scheduled for September 12-13, 2024.

Presentations:

Day 1.

• I 1-3 EU Enviromental policies – Diar Isid-EC DG ENV
• I 1-4 Activity report of METEET – Dejan Trifunović-DC
• I 1-5 Update on the FRMMP for Danube – Viktoria Weissenburger-EUSDR PA1a
• I 2-1 Updates on the progress of works in Germany – Stefan Neudert-StUMV
• I 2-2 Improvement of the Danube in Hungary – Bede Csaba-OVF
• I 2-3 Border section HR-RS-FAIRway 2 works – Hubalek MSTI-Mihajlović Plovput
• I 2-4 Update on the progress in Serbia-Iron Gate I&II – Bojana Nedovic-Plovput
• I 2-5 Updates RO-BG part of the Danube – Romeo Soare AFDJ-Ivelin Zanev APPD
• I 2-6 Waterway Monitoring System WAMOS 2.0 – Susanne Bachl-Via Donau

Day 2.

• II 1-1 State of navigation on the Sava – Krunoslav Sopček-Duško Isaković-ISRBC
• II 1-2 New age of river engineering – Duška Kunštek-MSTI
• II 1-3 Serbian and BiH sector confulence of Sava and Drina – Lubiša Mihajlović-Plovput
• II 1-4 Croatian port infrastructure-economy hub – Vjekoslav Janković PA SB
• II 1-5 Development of nautical turism in the SRB – Božana Matoš-Ancoris
• II 1-6 Case study-River Marina Sisak – Duška Kunštek-MSTI
• II 1-7 Crusing tourism infrastructure – Srđa Lješević-PGA
• II 1-8 State of fleet and expected improvements – Tomislav Uroda-iCat
• II 2-1 Process to adapt the Joint Statement 2.0 – Birgit Vogel-ICPDR