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European Transport Commissioner Adina Valean said on Friday that Romania ranks third in the EU by the volume of inland waterways freight, but stressed that the potential is far from being reached.
"The Danube was at the center of today's discussion. The Danube is, alongside the Rhine, a backbone for European river transport, which is also at the core of European transport policies because it is a very sustainable means of transport. Romania operates river transport on the Danube. It is the third largest country in the EU after the Netherlands and Germany by the volume of inland waterways freight volume, but its potential is far from reached. To give you an example, on the Danube component we are talking about we have a length maybe threefold that on the Rhine, but the volume of goods is two and a half times lower," Valean told a joint press conference with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov at the Victoria Palace of Government.
She stressed that the potential is enormous, but that certain standards imposed by European policies must be met by the Danube navigation corridor.
"It's about navigability, the status of good navigation, a minimum of days per year is very important both in the context of policies that support inland navigation, but also in the current context of the conflict in Ukraine, new export routes for Ukraine must be facilitated and the Danube is in a key position for that," said the European Commissioner for Transport.
Valean pointed out that the EU financing of the Giurgiu-Ruse bridge is underway.
"We hope that all the projects included by Romania and Bulgaria in the Recovery and Resilience Plans, in the long-term investment plans will be carried out in good conditions, so that the absorption capacity of all European funds made available for this region reach their maximum potential," she said.
AGERPRES
