On the most international river in the world, it comes as no surprise that good cooperation and intensive exchange also drive the development of the Danube across national borders. On the occasion of the Advisory Committee Meeting for the three international FAIRway projects ‘FAIRway works! in the Rhine-Danube Corridor’, ‘Preparing FAIRway 2 works in the Rhine-Danube Corridor’ and ‘FAIRway Danube II’ - co-financed by the EU's ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (CEF) - on 26 and 27 November, an international project community came together once again at the viadonau headquarters in Vienna – also with strong success stories in their luggage, such as the completion of the modernisation of the Iron Gate II lock on the Serbian-Romanian border section.
The high-ranking international FAIRway project community at the Brigittenau II mooring place in Vienna, which was modernised this year, the viadonau pusher vessel Bad Deutsch-Altenburg in the background, photo: © viadonau
The FAIRway Danube project community - international commitment and waterway expertise are united in Vienna's TechGate, photo: © viadonau/Johannes Zinner
The Danube is a powerful ribbon that closely connects half of Europe. This also applies to those developments that will have a lasting impact on the future of the river. And the scope of this development is enormous. At the FAIRway Danube Advisory Committee Meeting, viadonau, together with colleagues from the Danube countries, presented the wide range of results, ongoing activities and goals to be achieved by the FAIRway Danube project family and beyond – from joint measures under the umbrella of the European Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) to strengthen the Danube’s role in Europe's multimodal transport network and viadonau-led initiatives to promote the modal shift of high and heavy transport to the waterway, to the greening of inland navigation through alternative fuels and the provision of shore-side electricity, to the continued implementation and further development of River Information Services (RIS) in Europe.
"The Danube teaches us in a very practical way to view Europe as a whole and that major goals on the river can only be achieved together. In joint projects such as ‘FAIRway works! in the Rhine-Danube Corridor’, we have already been able to set strong accents in cooperation with Serbia through the sustainable modernisation of the Serbian Iron Gate II locks as well as the Austrian mooring places for cargo vessels. A joint success story about european cooperation that has great potential for the future", says viadonau Managing Director Hans-Peter Hasenbichler.
International cooperation is at the heart of the FAIRway Danube projects coordinated by viadonau. In addition to the most important milestones and successes of ‘FAIRway works! in the Rhine-Danube Corridor’ and ‘Preparing FAIRway 2 works in the Rhine-Danube Corridor’, the joint advisory committee meeting in Vienna focussed on a status update on the major successor and flagship project FAIRway Danube II. With a total budget of around EUR 70 million - including EUR 47 million in EU funding from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) - 183 remotely monitored buoys will be procured on the Danube in six countries, 19 gauging stations will be modernised, mooring places in Austria and on the Danube-Black Sea Canal will be upgraded and the transnational waterway monitoring system WAMOS will be expanded. A current development step within the project: the ‘Flexible Infrastructure’ pilot test carried out east of Vienna in summer and autumn 2024. In order to precisely analyse the effect of the measure for the local improvement of navigation conditions, these activities will run for a period of four years during low water periods and should also provide important findings for implementation in the countries of the middle and lower Danube.
Further information:
FAIRway Danube II
FAIRway works! in the Rhine-Danube Corridor
Preparing FAIRway 2 works in the Rhine-Danube corridor
