First results from the joint efforts on project DANTE
In the days, when the star of transnational programme Danube’s campaign “Project of the week” is project DANTE – improving the administrative procedures and processes related to the Danube waterway transport, we can gladly state that our efforts keep on giving tangible results.
One year after the official end of DANTE and it’s already a fact that Hungary, Croatia and Serbia implemented the DAVID forms in their control procedures, thus replacing the national documents, which they were using up until this point. The forms are applicable during Danube border control check-ups since the first quarter of 2020 and can be downloaded from the websites of the relevant Ministries in each of the countries:
- Hungary (since February 1st 2020)
- Croatia (since February 1st 2020)
- Serbia (since Martch 1st 2020)
Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova intend to follow suit by the end of 2021 at the latest.
As a partner in the international consortium, Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber was given as an example for exceptional coordination and mediation between Bulgarian administrations and business operators interested in the Danube navigation, who were sitting together for the first time in a long while. As a result of our efforts in Bulgaria and the efforts of our partners in the other Danube states, 3 of the most frequently used forms on the river were drafted, discussed, approved and harmonized (Departure and Arrival, Crew List and Passenger List). One of the biggest successes within the project was, that the DAVID standard navigation forms were proposed for coordination to the European Commission and their implementation on a national level has been recommended by the Danube Transport Ministers during their meeting on December 3rd 2018 in Brussels.
The DANTE project is widely recognized on a European level and the initiatives of the project consortium have been able to positively influence the challenges and opportunities standing before the overall development of the water transport in the Danube region. In that sense, the revised Action Plan for the Danube Region Strategy (EUSDR) is the integrated response of the joint efforts as it updates and focuses the activities and results of the already completed key projects, among which is DANTE, places them in a strategical context and provides ways of „integrating“ them in other programmes.
