Mr. Scheele attended the event as head of one of DG TREN Units (for International Transport Relations and Trans-European Transport Network Policy) and presented Brussels`s priorities in promoting and developing inland waterway transport. He referred to initiatives like NAIADES, Marco Polo and TEN-T programmes and suggested Member States national authorities to conceive similar action plans. He also asked industry’s key actors to signal any problem they are confronting with and to come with solutions.
The European official was kind enough to answer some of our questions regarding possibilities to develop inland navigation on the Danube.
RBT: Recently Slovakia and Czech Republic were granted green light from the Commission to offer incentives/state aids to inland waterway transport. Can Romania ask acceptance for similar support?
J.S.: There are many ways to support it. Every proposal has to be examined on it’s own merit and it’s complicated. I don’t claim any expertise in here... I know the basic principles and I know that the Czech case took quite a lot of work before we finally OKed it: it’s been hanging around quite a long time. The same possiblities are open to Romania, but they have to decide to do it. There are complex rules however, so I wouldn’t give a blanked ”yes“ or ”no“ you can do this or that.
