Tight public budgets form the background of the high level deliberations on future European Union transport infrastructure. Europe is facing many challenges including global warming and the rising prices of natural resources. It is clear that the old ways of doing things will not continue to work. In order to maintain Europe’s competitiveness, new ways have to be explored. Inland Navigation Europe (INE), the European Barge Union (EBU) and the European Skippers Organisation (ESO) welcome the TEN-T deliberations at Zaragoza (8-9 June) and call on the decision makers to focus waterways in their strategy. Europe’s inland waterways provide a ready built mechanism for low carbon and low energy freight transport that links Europe’s main economic centres. Revitalising existing waterways will provide a cost-efficient solution.
In Europe’s biggest port, Rotterdam, more than half the total freight processed per day is transported to the hinterland using inland navigation and there is free capacity for more. Imagine the impact on congestion alone if that transport moved to the roads, let alone the impact on the environment from those emissions.
At the recent transport forum in Leipzig, Commissioner Siim Kallas outlined a vision of a European transport system that is highly integrated, efficient, cross-modal, resilient and low-carbon. This vision can be easily achieved by fast-tracking an emphasis on increased use of inland waterway transport for European freight transport through effective integration with other ways of transport.
Improving waterway infrastructure and its links to other transport modalities is an efficient use of available resources because:

• The waterway transport system is a European core network. All major cities in Europe have waterways and rivers, which are the arteries of a living, breathing multi-functional human heart of consumption. These same waterways form links with major ports, helping to improve Europe’s global competitiveness.
• Developing waterway infrastructure offers excellent return on investment. A recent study showed that inland navigation managed to grow by 14.5 percent, despite low investment as compared to other modalities (NEA 2008).
• The waterway network is an existing network with free capacity – unlike other infrastructure, developing waterways does not require land-take, ensuring that transport can grow without further fragmenting the landscape.
• Inland waterway transport has the lowest external costs of all transport modalities – moving more goods on the waterways will make a substantial contribution to achieving the environmental and quality of life goals of the European Union.

With Europe poised on the brink of implementing plans for future generations, placing an emphasis on inland navigation means making a cost-effective decision that will guarantee a return on investment beyond transport. Developing inland waterways will positively affect regional development, nature, tourism & leisure, water supply and management, energy and climate change.
To create our future transport vision of a low-cost network that develops maximum benefits to cash-strapped regions, there is no choice – it’s add water to multi-modality now or never.