For Official Use

CEMT/CM(2002)4

Conférence Européenne des Ministres des Transports
European Conference of Ministers of Transport

22-Apr-2002___________________________________________________________________________________________English - Or. English

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORTCOUNCIL OF MINISTERS

CEMT/CM(2002)4
For Official Use
Council of Ministers

MODAL SHIFTPOSSIBLE ACTIONS TO STRENGTHEN THE ROLE OF INLAND WATERWAYS

This document is submitted for discussion under item 3, "Modal Shift" of the draft agenda of the Bucharest
session of the Council of Ministers.
Ministers are invited to discuss the measures recommended and identify any action that should be taken for theirimplementation and also to give guidance on further work within the ECMT and in other relevant international
bodies.

English - Or. English

JT00124887

Document complet disponible sur OLIS dans son format d'origine
Complete document available on OLIS in its original format

CEMT/CM(2002)4
A paneuropean conference on inland shipping was held in Rotterdam on the 5th and 6th of
September 2001. The conference closed with the adoption of the Rotterdam Declaration. This calls on theECMT to work for the implementation of the measures set out in the Declaration and to examine legal
obstacles to the development of a harmonised and competitive paneuropean inland waterways market.
In response, ECMT organised a seminar on 30 January 2002 entitled The Inland Waterways ofTomorrow on the European Continent. Its aim was to define the policy approach to reinforcing the role ofinland waterways among the different modes of transport and inform debate in the discussion of modal
shift and sustainable development programmed for the Bucharest Council of Ministers.
The seminar concluded that Ministers should give more attention to inland navigation at a time ofincreasing concern with congestion on the roads and the environmental impacts resulting from road traffic
growth. To this end the following policy initiatives were considered desireable.
•Facilitate the integration of inland water transport in a multi-modal transport system by:Ø providing aid for projects and initiatives aiming at promotion of inter-modal transport
involving inland water transport;
Ø furthering the development of a coherent network of multi-modal transhipment points withterminals connecting the waterway network with the road and rail networks;
Ø encouraging the development of a stackable type of swap body, the dimensions of which arecompatible with those of ISO containers.
Ø ensuring the development of framework conditions for competition between railways andinland shipping that promotes complementary development of the two modes and avoids
economic distortions;Ø furthering the development of a uniform method of charging the use of infrastructure for alltransport modes.

•Improve the conditions for fluvio-maritime transport by:Ø resolving incompatibilities in the legal frameworks applicable to maritime and inland shippingthat undermine the development of fluvio-maritime transport;
Ø moving customs clearance formalities from seaports to inland ports and simplifying customs
procedures for fluvio-maritime shipping, which should be treated as inland transport;
Ø ensuring non-discriminatory access to the sea and the inland waterways for fluvio-maritime
transport and to this end, furthering the development and the adoption at the international levelof specific technical regulations for fluvio-maritime vessels;
Ø furthering the development of shipping technologies increasing the geographical scope offluvio-maritime transport on the inland waterway network;Ø avoiding the development of intermodal transport units with dimensions that are incompatible
with infrastructure for inland transport;
Ø extending the "sea motorways" to the inland ports.

•Overcome barriers to the development of the inland waterway transport by:Ø fostering work to establish a unified civil law system for the European waterway network;Ø providing training and information for the future of the profession in order to support
development of inland shipping;Ø supporting promotional activities to convince shippers and forwarders that waterway transport
is a mode with a future.
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CEMT/CM(2002)4•

Improve the quality of the European inland waterway network by:ØØØØØØØØ
•promoting the drawing up of a unique list of bottlenecks and missing links, in co-operation
between the international organisations concerned;
supporting investment, above all for better maintenance of the infrastructure and dredging,and modernisation to meet the requirements of modern shipping, providing sufficient
headroom for the stacking of containers, since the development of existing infrastructure
shows far greater returns than major new projects;
providing investment for missing links in order to build-up an efficient international network,
subject to a positive socio-economic assessment of the benefits expected;
guaranteeing the completion of projects once they are underway to avoid the exposure oftransport enterprises to avoidable risks of stranded investment;
ensuring uninterrupted access to waterways and uninterrupted operation of the related
infrastructure;encouraging a better integration of environmental and ecological concerns into the design ofinland waterway investment projects, and improving the relations between the environmentalmovement and the inland water transport industry;
furthering the adaptation of the relevant parts of the inland waterway network to the needs offluvio-maritime transport;
ensuring a treatment of inland waterway investment projects equal to those for the othermodes, e.g. in the application of aid schemes.

Facilitate the opening of the market by the elimination of currently existing restrictions on market
access and the creation of a ‘level playing field’ by:ØØØØremoving from national and international legislation restrictions on market access for"foreign" vessels;
promoting the convergence of technical, safety and environmental standards for inland
navigation vessels, harmonised traffic regulations and harmonised procedures for certificationof licences;encouraging the international harmonisation of labour and social security conditions including
rules governing crews;
supporting initiatives to bring the international Danube regime more into line with theinternational Rhine regime in order to harmonise the legal framework for inland shipping; thisrequires co-ordinated preparatory work, in the Rhine and Danube Commissions.

Ministers are invited to:−−−consider the measures recommended;
identify any action that should be taken for their implementation, notably in the framework offollow-up to the Rotterdam Declaration;
provide guidance on any areas where they consider new ECMT initiatives in regard to inland
waterways would be useful.

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