Principles to follow

1. Basin-wide ‘Sustainable Navigation Plan’ for the entire Danube

• Plans should strike a fair balance between ecological, transport, and socio-economic needs
• A holistic approach must be applied before individual projects are planned
• The tool to reach such a plan is an international Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process

2. Connect TEN-T Guidelines with the Water Framework Directive (WFD)

• Respect of the WFD is necessary for establishing a Sustainable Navigation Plan and for a real ‘win-win‘ result
• This includes respect for transport projects to the requirements of no deterioration, improvement of the ecological status, and genuine public participation

3. Use measures that works with nature not against it

• Sometimes innovative approaches can achieve similar goals as traditional concrete structures, by reactivating natural dynamic processes of the river in a controlled manner
• They should be explored and implemented wherever suitable

4. Promoting sustainable innovations

• State-of-the-art ship technology: shallow draught inland vessels, reduced emissions, less wastewater produced
• Improved methodologies for forecasting water levels, along with river information systems: radar/GPS guidance and traffic control, regular and good soundings of changing navigation channels, adequate and up-to-date marking of the navigation channel (radar reflectors and buoys)
• Developing and improving multi-modal logistical infrastructure

5. Promote goods transport on the Danube to compete with transport on roads

• To achieve a genuine reduction of road traffic, one option is to promote container transport on the Danube

6. No new depth requirements can be added to existing conventions

• No new depth requirements should be implemented beyond those of existing conventions, unless they are based on ecological assessment and prove that they do not have a negative impact on the ecosystem across the whole river basin