The article was submitted by Agnieszka Kastory, for the conference in Kraków as part of the Polish Presidency 2025.
The total length of European inland waterways is 13,000 km. They are served by 250 ports. In 2020, 131.7 million tonne-kilometres of goods were transported on inland waterways (1 tonne of cargo per 1 km), which accounted for 4.1% of all land transport (road, rail, sea). Rhine and Danube, there are the most important European waterways of international importance, connected since 1992 by the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal.
International Danube navigation takes place from Kelheim (2414.720 km) to the mouth of the river. Due to the navigation conditions, the Danube waterway is divided into the Upper Danube from Kelheim to Gönyű (720-1791 km); the Middle from Gönyű to Turn Severin (1791-931) and the Lower from Turn Severin to the mouth (931-0 km). Danube navigation is served by 63 ports, including 5 in Germany, 6 in Austria, 2 in Slovakia, 7 in Hungary, 3 in Croatia, 8 in Serbia, 9 in Bulgaria, 18 in Romania, 1 in Moldova, 4 in Ukraine. Some of them have several terminals, such as Vidin, Ruse, Galati.
The vessels that sail on the Danube represent a wide range of age (mostly 39-47 years), type of propulsion and purpose. In 2021, there were 713 pusher tugs on the river; 82 pusher tugs, 235 tugs, 1,260 ships with autonomous propulsion, including 441 tankers, as well as ships for the transport of bulky goods, pushed barges for bulk goods, ro-ro barges and tanker barges. The number of vessels sailing on the river has been decreasing since the 1990s. In 1999, there were 5,000 ships on the river, and in 2017 only 3,200 (total tonnage 3 million tons).
In the first twenty years of the 21st century, the most serious problem of Danube navigation was the condition of the waterway, in particular low water levels and the resulting unprofitability of transport, especially in the years 2012-2018.
The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war led to a change in the Danube transport map. The number of cargo and passenger transports from ports located on the middle section of the river towards Constanța decreased. On the other hand, the number of turnovers of the Ukrainian ports of Reni and Izmail and the seaport of Constanța increased, which is due to the search for new sales routes for Ukrainian grain.
Bibliography
Annuaire statistique de la Commission du Danube, 2021, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.danubecommission.org/uploads/doc/2023/Stat_2021/fr_stat_2021.pdf.
CCNR, Rapport Annuel 2023, https://www.ccr-zkr.org/files/documents/om/om23_II_fr.pdf.
Danube Commmision 70, edited by Iván Gyrcsík, Budapest 2019, https://www.danubecommission.org/uploads/doc/2019/Danube_Commission_70.pdf.
Dyrektywa Parlamentu Europejskiego i Rady zmieniająca dyrektywę 2005/44/WE w sprawie zharmonizowanych usług informacji rzecznej (RIS) w śródlądowych drogach wodnych we Wspólnocie, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:00c62adb-be8c-11ee-b164-01aa75ed71a1.0005.02/DOC_1&format=PDF.
Author: Agnieszka Kastory
Uniwersytet Jagielloński