Transnational network for multimodal transport

The EUR3 million initiative is financed by the South East Europe Programme (SEE), the largest Transnational Cooperation Programme in the European Territorial Cooperation strand, involving 16 countries (Member States and neighbouring Countries).

South-eastern Europe faces growing freight traffic flows, originated and directed in and outside the region and mainly supported by road infrastructures which are not planned for this level of capacity. The increasing role of the economic relevance of the Balkan region will be a strategic asset for North Adriatic ports because of the capacity to link the European market with Asia.

Watermode responds to this issue by developing the integration of multimodal logistic platforms in this region, which represents a pre-condition to guide the successful performances of economic operators towards multimodal transport by a more sustainable way of conceiving transports.

As a matter of fact, the lack of both integration of waterborne transport modes in the logistic chain and of transnational coordination for sea and IWW port infrastructures in this area represent a critical aspect. The initiative supports a better integration between maritime and river transport for new logistic solutions.

With 10 Countries and 15 partners involved, Watermode counts on a large and strategic partnership joint by Veneto Region, Levante Port Authority, Port of Koper, Austrian Mobility Research, Pannon Business Network, Bulgarian Executive Agency Maritime Administration, Constance Port Authority, Attika Business Innovation Centre, Alexandroupoli Port Authority, Alma Mons RDANovi Sad, University of Novi Sad, Ports of Bar and Durres.

To that extent, the Consortium has performed a census monitoring 206 existing multimodal platforms, the coordination of strategies for the promotion of the water/ground multimodality, the definition of common quality standards in transport and logistics services, the implementation of pilot studies for multimodality based on sea and inland waterways as factor of competitiveness and environmental sustainability.

Thanks to this cooperation-driven participation, a transnational permanent network Multilog has been created, to improve links with the respective retro-ports in connection with the TEN-T networks especially in the Balkans, to promote the harmonisation of standards for multimodal transport, to support the principle of safety, the standardisation of shipping costs and the exchange of data between multimodal platforms involved.

The aim to increase the attractiveness of the water/land multimodal transport is strictly connected to the competitiveness of multimodal platforms.

With regard to the competitive advantages of multimodal transport, Watermode has allowed to compare internal and external costs of transport (negative externalities, environmental and social costs) on the following 3 default routes: 1) the River Danube form Vienna (AT) to Constanta (RO); 2) the south-east coast from Venice to Constanta (RO); 3) the Balkans from Bari (IT), Bar(MON).

Durres (ALB), Belgrade (SER), to Sofia (BG). Within the framework of the project, the comparison of global costs between multimodal and road transport systems has been mainly focused on analysing and assessing the performances connected to the different types of transports on the analysed routes (in terms of employed time, traffic flow, transport development, gas emission, quality, etc.) along several real freight corridors and segments across the South-eastern European region. The routes have been selected after analysing actual and potential multimodal traffic flows and include sections within candidate and potential candidate countries. The analysis shows that multimodal transport is much more competitive if compared to road transport.

Competitiveness is by the way strictly connected to the principle of safety at work. In this perspective Watermode means innovation in the sign of safety and life-long learning sustainability. Indeed, the initiative has cooperated to the definition of common training instruments in the field of safety of workers employed in logistic structures, in compliance with the Recommendation of the European Commission COM (2007)616. This commitment has been ratified by each partner in Novi Sad, through the Memorandum of Understanding at the presence of the International Labour Office – UN Agency.

A better transnational coordination among decision makers and various stakeholders has led to the definition of common strategies which raise the importance of sea-river transport.

To that extent, the Watermode partnership has taken part to the processes of open consultations started by the European Commission during 2009 and 2010, in particular the Green Paper on the future development of the TEN-T network, published in February 2009, and the consultation on the Danube Strategy in April 2010. With regard, the initiative can positively interact with the works related to the EU Danube Strategy, as its partnership gathers relevant public stakeholders in the field of waterborne transport and intermodal nodes of the Danube region as an instrument of integration of EU transport system with neighbouring countries (Albania, Montenegro and Serbia).

The fact that Watermode interacts at several strategic levels is also shown by the fact that the Venice Port Authority is requested to present the project on the occasion of important forums and appointments, like for the Joint Transnational Conference of Katowice, organised by 13 European Transnational Programs for territorial cooperation. The event was sponsored by the EU Presidency (currently Polish) and saw for the first time the 13 Programs meet to analyse the results of European Territorial Cooperation as an instrument to improve the quality of life in the involved Regions. Through Watermode, VPA was asked to illustrate a successful experience in transnational cooperation in a partnership that also offered an added value in the integration process. On the occasion, VPA insisted on the fact that initiatives as Watermode promote a better integration between Member States and candidate countries and contribute to establish and strengthening a cooperation culture along the EU’s external borders.

More recently, VPA took part to the Capitalisation Conference in Valencia, an initiative of Feports to promote cross-border cooperation by encouraging synergies for the dissemination and transfer of project results developed through transnational cooperation supported by European Programs. The experience of Watermode represents as a matter of fact as an initiative aimed at improving the integration of transport modes in the fluvial-maritime supply chain in South Eastern Europe.

Watermode is therefore considered a best practice at a transnational level and its results are catching the interest of an ever growing number of actors and stakeholders. These results also confirm the active role of Venice Port Authority in the field of transnational cooperation.

By Mr Paolo Costa, President of Venice Port Authority