May 24 2002, 10:08 SeaNews

The Blue Danube to see more vessels up and down the river

SeaNews reported that full time navigation along the Danube is to be resumed this October. The 60th session of the Danube Commission, the special international entity established within the framework of the Belgrade convention as of 1948 declared the aforementioned intention.

The session held in Budapest Apr 15-23 summoned Austria, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Croatia, Yugoslavia as well as countries observers France, Turkey, Czech republic, Holland to focus on cleaning the main river from the broken bridge remainders at Novi-Sade.

The financing for this job is EURO 22mn and shall be met by the EU and in view of the Ukrainian delegation this will allow the European cargo carriers to have a strong lobby aside from the Eastern Europe Block.

The issues of bridge taxes and drawbridge operational costs remained unresolved. The main river is not fully cleared from the mines so far which makes insuring the cargo at the blocked spot impossible.