PLATINA project shaped future of inland navigation in Europe

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The Danube region plays an important role in the EU’s transport and energy infrastructure,
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PLATINA project shaped future of inland navigation in Europe

As the four-year PLATINA project comes to a close, its achievements are proving that success for inland waterway transport is possible when all stakeholders participate.

While the first PLATINA project will end this autumn, its programmes for inland waterway transport will remain afloat.

The four-year PLATINA project will officially end this autumn, but the legacy of integrated stakeholder dialogue will continue. Project Coordinator Gert-Jan Muilerman reflects on the project’s past challenges and success.

Danube Watch: How were stakeholders key to the success of the PLATINA project?
Muilerman:
We started PLATINA in 2008 as a project with 23 partners from nine different countries and completely different backgrounds. The one thing they all had in common however was that all partners had a genuine interest in the project’s results. I think the PLATINA project thereby created an atmosphere and a platform on which sometimes controversial themes could be discussed in a non-controversial and factual way. The participants and stakeholders could develop and discuss content without having to represent formal positions from the beginning. That approach worked for themes related to not only education and image building, but also infrastructure development.

Danube Watch: How were stakeholders key to the success of the PLATINA project?
Muilerman:
The toughest nuts to crack are – at least in hindsight – often the most rewarding activities. The interdisciplinary good practice manual on environmentally sustainable waterway planning certainly was such a hard nut, but we did it. Starting bottom up with small working group meetings, the ICPDR created a setting in which different stakeholders could get to know and understand each other’s motivation better. Together they elaborated a joint product and came to a common conclusion. Almost unnoticed as a side effect, they learned to respect each other’s position and expertise better.

Danube Watch: How were stakeholders key to the success of the PLATINA project?
Muilerman:
This spring we submitted a proposal for a PLATINA II project. PLATINA II will - provided that we pass the evaluation successfully - have a very focused approach. Since the research budget will be significantly smaller than for the first PLATINA project, we had to make hard choices: we had to focus on fewer items and had to reduce the size of the consortium. One of the current priorities of the European Commission is the modernisation and greening of the inland waterway fleet. Keeping up with the rapid technological improvements taking place in the road sector will be the main challenge for the years to come. PLATINA II will provide technical expertise and create strategies to retain the relative head start of inland navigation in terms of emissions to air, and it will push logistical innovations that will allow inland navigation to enter new markets.

PLATINA


The PLATINA project is a consortium of 23 different players working to promote inland waterway transport in Europe. Organised along the lines of the European Commission’s Navigation and Inland Waterway Action and Development programme (NAIADES), PLATINA consists of five work packages in the following policy areas: markets, fleet, jobs and skills, image and infrastructure. PLATINA provides technical and organisational assistance in these fields of action by ensuring the active participation of key industrial stakeholders, associations and Member State administrations. The PLATINA Manual on Good Practices in Sustainable Waterway Planning can be ordered free of charge from the ICPDR ( vpcqe@haivraan.betgro.anneivnu@rdpci ).

Kirstie Shepherd is a freelance journalist living in Vienna and has called the Danube River Basin home since 2000.