Platform for the implementation of NAIADES

Europe’s freight transport system has much room for improvement. Congestion, capacity problems and delays affect mobility and economic competitiveness and are detrimental to the environment and quality of life.

The EU has committed itself to pursue the goal of shifting transport to less energy-intensive, cleaner and safer transport modes. Inland waterway transport is an obvious choice to play a more prominent role in reaching these targets.
Given that inland navigation is often a cross-border transport mode, action at both national and Community level is required. This is why the European Commission developed the action programme NAIADES, which aims at promoting IWT in Europe through a broad range of activities. PLATINA II was the follow-up project of PLATINA in order to continue the coordination platform to implement the action programme.

The activities of PLATINA II aimed at the whole European Union, as IWT is relevant for most of the countries. For the Danube region though, they are of special relevance, as the Danube is not only among the major inland waterways of Europe but also the most international waterway in the world. It exhibits pronounced disparities concerning navigation and socio-economic conditions alongside its course. Due to this, the broad set of measures applied by PLATINA II, addressing issues concerning markets & awareness, innovation & fleet, jobs & skills and infrastructure, are expected to have profound impact on the Danube region.

PLATINA II represented an essential framework for the Danube Region Strategy, accounting for the pan-European perspective and setting the topical parameters for strategy building and action implementation of the EUSDR.