Expert Meeting on Security (12 March 2025) – An important step towards safety and security of Inland Waterway Transport

Expert Meeting on Security in Inland Waterway Transport was held on 12 March 2025 in hybrid format and was attended by over 28 experts from the member states of the Danube Commission (Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Serbia,  Slovakia, Ukraine) and representatives of the DG MOVE, AQUAPOL Inland &Maritime – Danube-Black Sea HUB, Priority Area 11 Security of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), as well as those of shipping companies.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine – Mr. Andrii Kashuba.

 The event focused on the security concerns and measures to ensure the safety of navigation on the Danube River. The Ukrainian delegation expressed concern over the additional threads for safety and security of Inland Waterway Transport operations due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Russia continues to target Ukrainian civil infrastructure, including ports, posing a threat to civilians in Ukraine and also global food security. The Danube Commission condemns the unjustified russian full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine and supports Ukraine in its fight for freedom.

Participants discussed the status of implementing the Recommendations for Ensuring the Security of Navigation on the Danube (doc. DK/TAG 97/8), adopted in 2022 by the Danube Commission. The Ukrainian delegation presented its proposal to align the Recommendations with the existing legal framework for the security of maritime ports, such as The International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention (1974/1988) and to change the status of the document to General Provisions.

The European Commission (Ina Miskulin, DG MOVE) in its presentation focused on maritime security legislative framework, cybersecurity at the port facility, on port level and on board the vessels, handbook security for Member States’ competent authorities, and Commission security inspections. It provided a substantial overview of the activities of the EC in the field of security for waterborne transport, proving that this issue is on a very high level in the agenda of the EC.

The representatives of PA 11 of EUSDR (Alexander Moser) and AQUAPOL Inland &Maritime – Danube-Black Sea HUB (Alexandru Petrache) gave an overview of their relevant activities, focusing on problem management, training, stakeholder engagement, and international cooperation.

The meeting concluded that the security topic is of very high importance for the Danube region, in particular, considering the geopolitical situation in Europe and Russian war of aggression against Ukraine that poses a threat to the entire Lower Danube region. However, there is a need for a comprehensive assessment of the new security-relevant threats in IWT, a clear risk analysis, with a set of measures to mitigate the potential impact of the security threats.