General information

The project NEWADA (Network of Danube Waterway Administrations) was a part of the South-East-European Transnational Cooperation Program, which aims were to develop transnational partnerships on matters of strategic importance, in order to improve the territorial, economic and social integration process and to contribute to cohesion, stability and competitiveness of the region.The South East Europe Program (SEE Program) helps to promote better integration between the Member States, candidate and potential candidate countries as well as neighboring countries.

Under its 4 Program Priorities:

• Priority axis 1: Facilitation of innovation and entrepreneurship
• Priority axis 2: Protection and improvement of the environment
• Priority axis 3: improvement of the accessibility
• Priority axis 4: development of transnational synergies for sustainable growth areas 

NEWADA is a part of Intervention Area 3.1: Improve coordination in promoting, planning and operation for primary and secondary transportation networks.

Duration, geographical coverage and consortium

• NEWADA started in April 2009 and ended in March 2012 which gives a duration of 36 months.
• Project team consisted of 12 project partners from 8 Danube countries.
• The project also had an Advisory Board consisted of Ministries, the Danube Commission, the International Sava River Basin Commission, the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) and other relevant actors.

Lead Partner

via donau – Österreichische Wasserstraßen-Gesellschaft mbH;
www.via-donau.org

Budget

Total budget: 2.864.546 €
EU-ERDF financing: 2.224.960 €
Public financing: 431.182 €
IPA financing: 208.404€

Objectives & Activites

NEWADA, Network of Danube Waterway Administrations was aimed to increase the efficiency of the Danube as the European Transport Corridor VII by intensifying cooperation between waterway administrations to promote inland navigation as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly mode of transport.

• Cooperation on hydrological and hydrographical tasks will be intensified in order to achieve a higher impact. The efficiency of daily work has to be increased through the exchange of know-how among experts as well as through the identification of best practice cases.
• Physical accessibility of the waterway infrastructure will be improved. National action plans, feasibility studies, bilateral projects and implementation guidelines for improving waterway maintenance and river engineering will be worked out in cooperation with other Danube countries.
• Access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) networks and services will be enhanced in order to overcome shortcomings. Up-to-date waterway related data will be provided to waterway administrations of neighbouring countries, third parties and users.
• Responsible stakeholders will be integrated and cooperation will be fostered. The communication between waterway administrations, development agencies and Ministries of Transport shall be enhanced. Waterway administrations shall be transformed into service oriented organizations in order to meet user demands.

Work package overview

• WP 1

Work Package 1 is one out of two work packages which have been predefined by the SEE Program Authorities. The overall objective of WP 1 is the project management, which enables a smooth implementation of the project, provides feedback to the program bodies and keeps the whole project team up to date.

• WP 2

Work package 2 was also predefined by the SEE program and it is dealing with communication and dissemination. The main goal of the work package on one hand is to provide a seamless internal communication to improve workflow and to have a common understanding of the project activities and how to deliverables, on the other hand it is very important to provide transparency and communicate all project results and co-financing clearly.

• WP 3

Within work package 3 the cooperation on hydrographical and hydrological tasks shall be intensified. Especially in the cross border region a lot of potential for optimization exists. National strategy plans will be prepared to harmonise efforts and measures. Due to different national procedures surveying activities and outputs are not comparable so far. Hence, a common understanding for surveying activities will be established. Follow up activities such as bi-multilateral work plans will be drafted. Joint research activities will be identified by the provision of a research agenda and concepts for pilot activities.

• WP 4

River engineering is the process of planned human intervention in the course, characteristics or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. Several bottlenecks along the European Transport corridor VII are core hindrances for navigation. Similarities among these bottlenecks shall be identified to implement common solutions for their removal. Another essential item for a waterway administration is the maintenance of the waterway. Due to the fact that approximately 1100 river km of the 2400 river km are shared border a huge potential for a more efficient waterway maintenance due to cooperation is given.

• WP 5

Work Package 5 is dealing with the implementation of ICT networks and services. Main goal is to harmonize these services (e.g. ENCs) and to elaborate Danube region strategic documents such as guidelines. Joint activities like common survey and pilot actions are also essential. Relevant data for waterway administration and its interfaces will be defined. This data will be published on a web portal, where each country is responsible for its national information. Access points will be implemented at neuralgic points along the Danube waterway where only the web portal can be addressed. ENCs (electronic navigational charts) are the basis for RIS (River Information Services) (see Directive 2005/44/EC). For those charts a common understanding in term of quality will be worked out and implemented. In the run of previous projects like D4D and DANewBE Data, both within the Interreg III B program, a GIS data base was piloted. This kind of data base shall now be extended to Romania and Bulgaria. Furthermore necessary amendments due to technology development will be included.

• WP 6

Within this work package the project team will work together on organizational and strategic issues of the waterway administrations. Thus, a platform comprising the directors of the waterway administrations will be established called "Board of Directors" (BoD). The participating representatives will elaborate a SWOT analysis (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) for each waterway administration. The SWOT analysis shall be based on the current structures, the available resources and the existing tasks and objectives of each waterway administration. Based on this analysis the participating directors will discuss and agree on common objectives of waterway administrations on the river Danube. Based on these findings a set of recommendations will be elaborated for every waterway administration. Furthermore the BoD will develop coherent and internationally coordinated communication strategy laid down in action plans. Know-how exchange will be enabled through the set-up of exchange programs for experts, thus improving the cooperation between the waterway administrations and contributing to the setup of common standards along the Danube River. The involvement within PIANC expert meetings is planned. Finally the project will also define follow up activities and identify possible national and European funding sources.

Benefits are the following:

• National strategy plans for waterway maintenance, hydrology and hydrography was prepared, which were the basis for pilots, implementation guidelines and further bi-or multilateral projects;
• A web portal containing relevant fairway related data was established according to European Standards;
• The elaboration of an organizational strategy for each country is foster cooperation between the waterway authorities, development agencies and ministries within each country;
• The “Board of Directors” involves the directors of each waterway administration will be implemented in the run of the project and is meant to exist also after the lifetime of the project NEWADA. Within this board strategic issues shall be discussed and common approaches shall be agreed;
• Cooperation of Danube waterway administrations is strengthened by holding regular meetings of Board of Directors.
• More than 80 representatives of Stakeholders took part in the final presentation of the project NEWADA, held on 29 March 2012 in Belgrade. The organizer of the event was the Directorate for Inland Waterways (Plovput).

Partneri

Country	Partner	Web
Austria	Via Donau	www.via-donau.org
Slovakia	SVP	www.svp.sk
Hungary	SOE	www.rsoe.hu
	VITUKI	www.vituki.hu
	VKKI	www.vkki.hu
Croatia	APP	www.vodniputovi.hr
Serbia	Plovput	www.plovput.gov.rs
Romania	ANC	www.acn.ro
	AFDJ	www.afdj.ro
Bulgaria	EAEMDR	www.appd-bg.org
Ukraine	SHS
	ONMA	www.onma.edu.ua

Contact

For further information about the role of Plovput on project NEWADA, please contact our project coordinator:
M.Sc Ivan Mitrović
Directorate for Inland Waterways Plovput
Tel: 381 11 3029 842
Fax: 381 11 3029 808
e-mail: imitrovic@plovput.rs

Official website:
www.newada.eu

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