Question E-006205/2017 by Daniel Buda (PPE)

The commercial port of Corabia is no longer able to operate because barges full of cereals are stuck on the sand.

The result is that mountains of cereals are standing on the banks of the Danube because there is no more room in the silos. They could be transported by rail or by road, but the costs would be higher.

Trade on the Danube from the port of Corabia has been blocked since the spring, when the water level fell. The only possibility open to traders is to transport cereals by TIR to Constanţa and then export them from there, which entails additional costs.

What instruments are available to the Commission to ensure that the authorities shoulder their responsibility and remedy the situation both economically and environmentally?

Answer given by Ms Bulc on behalf of the Commission (17.11.2017)

The Commission is aware that, depending on hydro-meteorological conditions, navigation in some sections of the Danube becomes extremely difficult in certain periods of the year, with the consequent negative effects on river transportation activities.

Improving navigability conditions in the Danube is one of the objectives of the Trans-European transport networks (TEN-T). On the Commission's initiative, the transport ministers of the Danube riparian Member States have endorsed the "Fairway Rehabilitation and Maintenance Master Plan of the Danube and its navigable tributaries" and committed to give priority to the execution of the required works. The matter is followed up in the Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor Forum and by the Coordinator Karla Peijs.

In the context of the Connecting Europe Facility, the Commission supports projects aimed to improve navigability on the Danube all year round, like the Danube Fairway project. The EU Structural and Investment Funds allow the authorities in charge to obtain funding for projects related to the improvement of ports and inland navigation in the Danube.

Moreover, the Commission has recently updated the State Aid rules applying to inland ports. Member States can now make public investments of up to EUR 40 million per project in inland ports and up to EUR 50 million per project for inland ports included in the work plan of a Core Network Corridor with full legal certainty and without prior control by the Commission. The new rules allow public authorities to cover the costs of dredging in ports and access waterways.

Nevertheless, the responsibility for planning and carrying out of the specific works required to improve the access to the port of Corabia lies with the national authorities.