Visit of the delegation of the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Community

On 8 February 2022, Manfred Seitz, Director General of the Secretariat of the Danube Commission, and Matej Zakonjšek, Director of the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Community, met together with team members at the premises of the Danube Commission to discuss future cooperation between the two international organizations in the field of inland navigation.

The Transport Community is an international organization in the field of mobility and transport consisting of 33 participants – all EU member states and the six regional partners of the Western Balkans. The organization was established by the Treaty of the Transport Community, which was signed on 9 October 2017 (Council Decision (EU) 2019/392).

Mr. Seitz presented the legal background, structure and priorities of the Danube Commission’s work.  He also proposed several areas for closer cooperation in the coming period such as participation in expert groups, the “Joint Statement” process, METEET events, projects investigating the climate change impact, revision of the TEN-T Regulation and implementation of the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation.

Mr. Matej Zakonjšek presented the work of the TCT Secretariat, the Action Plan for Waterborne Transport and Multimodality and the work of the Technical Committee for Waterborne Transport and Multimodality .  He welcomed the proposed areas of cooperation and emphasized that the TCT would like to become an official observer of the DC in 2022. He invited the DC Secretariat to participate as an observer in the work of the TCT Technical Committee for Waterborne Transport and Multimodality. He also informed about the upcoming IWW conference planned to take place in the Port of Brcko in late June/early July 2022, in which the Danube Commission should participate.