EBU releases its latest annu­al report

To dis­co­ver the pos­si­bi­li­ties of the sec­tor in incre­asing its modal share, mind shifts are nee­ded to dis­c­lo­se and attract new mar­kets.  A num­ber of new initia­ti­ves are expec­ted to address this chall­enge by sti­mu­la­ting a bet­ter inte­gra­ti­on of IWT into the logi­stics chain and to level the play­ing field with other modes in terms of regu­la­to­ry and fun­ding sup­port. Cer­tain­ly, the announ­ced EU poli­ci­es tog­e­ther with the con­cre­te legis­la­ti­ve mea­su­res should be tail­o­red to the sector’s needs to tap its full potential. 

To ser­ve its cli­ents as a relia­ble car­ri­er, IWT, howe­ver, first and fore­most is depen­ding on the infra­struc­tu­re net­work. The extre­me low water sea­son in sum­mer 2022 demons­tra­ted the more urgent need for cli­ma­te pro­of infra­struc­tu­re requi­ring pro­per main­ten­an­ce, reha­bi­li­ta­ti­on and rege­ne­ra­ti­on of the water­ways next to suf­fi­ci­ent invest­ments in new infrastructure. 

Obvious­ly, the sec­tor – alt­hough known for its posi­ti­ve envi­ron­men­tal record – is facing huge chal­lenges in terms of inno­va­ti­on and its tran­si­ti­on towards lower emis­si­on per­for­mance. Given the long life span of inland ves­sels and their engi­nes, the invest­ments in the gree­ning paths need to be future pro­of. The cur­rent uncer­tain­ty regar­ding the future tech­no­lo­gy and avai­la­bi­li­ty of suf­fi­ci­ent alter­na­ti­ve fuels tog­e­ther with the huge invest­ment cos­ts ham­pers the quick tran­si­ti­on of the sec­tor. This calls for con­cer­ted actions from public and pri­va­te stakeholders.

At the same time, the IWT sec­tor is taking initia­ti­ves to attract man­power. Like other modes of trans­port, it lacks qua­li­fied staff on board of the ves­sels. The recent­ly adopted legal frame­work should sup­port the mobi­li­ty of workers via the har­mo­ni­sa­ti­on of pro­fes­sio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons. In addi­ti­on, new initia­ti­ves such as edu­ca­ti­on for new­co­mers and a dedi­ca­ted recruit­ment cam­paign should help to over­co­me the shorta­ge of workers in the sector.

EBU tog­e­ther with its exe­cu­ti­ve body, the IWT Plat­form, has been invol­ved in all are­as of rele­van­ce to voice the needs of the sec­tor and act as coun­ter­part of the respon­si­ble institutions.

You may read in the Annu­al Report EBU’s posi­ti­on on the various topics and the role IWT ful­fils as key play­er in the mul­ti­mo­dal trans­port chain.

Annu­al Report Download