Straight wake for PLATINA: The Platform for the Implementation of NAIADES reports back

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Amongst the many achievements announced at the Steering Committee was the planned admission of EDINNA (Education in Inland Navigation) as a full member of the PLATINA consortium. EDINNA, which was founded with the support of PLATINA in 2009, is a consortium of 24 inland navigation educational and training institutes.  

The PLATINA consortium also reported back on

• The monitoring report on administrative barriers (with an updated report due to be published shortly)
• The continuing publishing of good practices in inland navigation – the second collection was released recently via  www.naiades.info/downloads  
• Ongoing work on innovation, with the establishment of an innovation expert group and interactive database (www.naiades.info/innovations)
• Start of pilot implementation of a European Hull database
• The publication of an inventory of inland waterway education and training demands
• Ongoing work towards developing a strategy for harmonised education and training standards
• The establishment of a Joint Working Group including Social Partners, EDINNA and representatives from river commissions
• The initiation of the development of a recruitment campaign for inland navigation
• Ongoing work on the dissemination of a strategic communications plan for inland waterway transport
• The planning and development of a headline conference to showcase inland waterway transport to the rest of the world
• Ongoing work on identifying infrastructure bottlenecks and missing links, with a report due to be publicised soon
• The development of a single portal (www.ris.eu) for all the River information services (RIS) initiatives taking place across Europe.
• The development of a manual on good practices in sustainable waterway development, due to be disseminated during 2010 and 2011.  

The meeting was addressed by Mr Dimitrios Theologitis, the head of unit “Maritime Transport Policy, Ports & Inland Waterways“(DG MOVE), who thanked the PLATINA consortium for their efforts and assured the meeting of the support of the Commission for inland waterway transport, which, he said plays a key role in the growing of Europe’s internal market. Mr Theologitis called PLATINA a key instrument for the promotion of inland waterway transport and noted with satisfaction that the consortium was successful in all areas and would continue to deliver results.  

The PLATINA project, adopted under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, covers a broad set of actions in five strategic fields of NAIADES: improve market conditions, modernise the fleet, develop human capital, strengthen the image of inland navigation and improve the infrastructure.

PLATINA provides technical and organisational assistance by ensuring active participation of key industrial stakeholders, associations and Member States administrations. Among the major project partners are via donau from Austria (coordinator), Voies navigables de France, Bundesverband der Deutschen Binnenschiffahrt (Germany), Promotie Binnenvaart Vlaanderen (Belgium) and the Rijkswaterstaat Centre for Transport and Navigation (The Netherlands).  

Editorial: PLATINA
Photo credits: Roeland van Bockel