ROMANIA RANKS AMONGST THE LAST WHEN IT COMES TO IWT FUNDING

The European Commission published last month a Funding Guide for Inland Waterway Transport and sadly Romania is ranked among the last of the 17 countries analysed. The guide contains information on European and national funding programs which are publicly available to the inland waterway and intermodal transport sector, and prizes less the efforts directed towards infrastructure.
And since Romania aims at infrastructure improvement of the Danube waterway and the establishment of River Information Services (RIS) on the Romanian stretch of the Danube (RoRIS), this is why it ranks amongst the last. In terms of funding for the private sector, the fleet development and modernization program which supported the construction of new sea-going and inland vessels in Romanian shipyards as well as the modernization of the country‘s existing maritime and inland fleet is currently suspended. At present, the program is under investigation by the Romanian Competition Council for compliance with EU state aid legislation.