Remove administrative and regulatory barriers (mutual recognition of boatmasters’ certificates, local / port authorities with harmonised port dues, canal fees, opening times)

FACT SHEET NO.: Cat-No.4 / Subcat-No.4.3-1

4. Internal market

4.3 Internal Market (intramodal): inland waterway transport

Remove administrative and regulatory barriers (mutual recognition of boatmasters’ certificates, local / port authorities with harmonised port dues, canal fees, opening times)

Inland waterway transport (IWW) is a less pollution, low energy consumption and low transport cost mode for good and passenger transportation. It is promoted by EU for sustainable and efficient transport. Studies on the administrative and regulatory barriers in the field of IWW [1] revealed that current rules and regulations of member states hinder fluent operations of IWT. To promote the IWW, the European Commission reviewed existing administrative and regulation barriers and proposed NAIADES Action Programme to harmonize them. The revision of the NAIADES programme (NAIADES II) is currently being prepared and expected to be adopted in 2013. The concrete actions involve: infrastructure (accessibility improvement of inland ports and promotion of inland waterway friendly seaport designs and operations), market (integrating inland waterways into the multimodal logistic chains), fleet (measures to reduce emissions), jobs and skills (harmonisation of standards for professional training and certification) and information exchange and sharing.

Implementation of the NAIADES Action Programme (2006-2013)

The objectives of the TPM are:
- remove regulations and administrative barriers between Member State for promoting Inland Waterway Transport .
- improve the efficiency of Inland Waterway Transport and reduce its transport cost related to regulations and administrative barriers.

The modal share of inland waterway transport can be improved.

No change

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[1] European Commission (2008): Final Report for the “Study on Administrative and Regulatory Barriers in the field of Inland Waterway Transport” – Part A
[2] European Commission (2008): Report on the impact assessment of proposals aiming to modernise and reinforce the organisational framework for inland waterway transport in Europe
[3] European Commission (2008): Accompanying document to the Report on the impact assessment of proposals aiming to modernise and reinforce the organisational framework for inland waterway transport in Europe
[4] European Commission (2012): Towards "NAIADES II" Promoting, greening and integrating inland waterway transport in the single EU transport area