In order to achieve the ambitious goals of the Union to reduce the CO2 emissions, it will be important to unleash the full potential of the inland waterway transport. Members of the EP Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) meet in Brussels to vote on Towards Future-proof Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) in Europe. Statement by Caroline NAGTEGAAL (Renew, NL), rapporteur.

Brussels

meeting

vote

Committee on Transport and Tourism

Transeuropean Transport Networks (T)

NAGTEGAAL, Caroline (Renew, NL)

Towards Future-proof Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) in Europe: statement by Caroline NAGTEGAAL (Renew, NL), rapporteur - TRAN Committee

SOUNDBITE (English), Caroline NAGTEGAAL (Renew, NL), Rapporteur, Well, what you see that in the debate, on transport debate, inland waterways ways is quite absent. And that was for me, a real trigger and a signal to came up with this initiative. Inland waterways play a very important role in transport, but especially also to get it more sustainable. So that's why I took this initiative to write this report. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Caroline NAGTEGAAL (Renew, NL), Rapporteur, Wel, we see nowadays that we have a lot of congestion on the roads. So it's very important to make that shift from road to inland waterways also, of course, to rail. But what I really do hope that we do a few things. First of all, that we create infrastructure, so improve our bridges, our locks, our waterways. Secondly, we have to create and or complete our TEN-T (The Trans-European Transport Network) network by 2030, including the comprehensive network for inland waterway sector. So we have to prepare our inland waterways for a more digital, but also a more sustainable transport system. And I think that this report and also all the initiatives and proposals we made that really will help. And I know that you will maybe ask the question, how? And I think it's very important to look at the funding. What we see is that the sector consists out of family businesses and SMEs, so they can't do it alone. So we should help them with hopefully, a dedicated financial instrument, the European Inland Waterway Fund. In that case, we can make this sector greener, more digital, and then we will reach the goals of our Green Deal.