Nowadays, when the movement of the goods, services and persons is a reality we cannot avoid, one can hardly imagine a world without transport. Yet, the transport sector is the second biggest contributor to the greenhouse gasses emissions, after the energy sector. Additionally, it is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, with forecasts that it will be doubled in the next 10-20 years. This calls for more sustainable transport policies, which, among others, shall guarantee a more balanced distribution of the transport loads, among all the transport modes (road, rail, waterborne and air), in addition to an overall trend of environmental awareness and the need for environmentally friendly solutions to our day to day activities.

Inland Waterways Transport plays a crucial role in this respect. At present, it is one of the most environmentally friendly transport modes. Nevertheless, in the Danube River Basin area this transport mode is widely underused.  Among others, one main reason for this is that more transport on the Danube would further damage its natural resources. However, this is an outdated concept. There are valuavle examples showing that inland waterways transport, navigation and environment are not so contradictory and that joint and intergrated solutions are possible and available. 

Through part of its activities SECI aims at supporting this last idea and at facilitating policy making processes that will provide for the implementation of sustainable environmentally friendly transport policies within the Danube River Basin, for policies that will provide for increased transport and navigation on the Danube, but shall also improve its natural and ecological values. The key idea  behind this line of action is that  there is great need to mobilise and involve all relevant stakeholders from this region and thus facilitate the creation of new channels for communication on Danube cooperation matters.