Danube Commission News

The Danube will remain blocked by bombed Yugoslav bridges through the winter, with the cost of removal estimated at as much as $31.5 million, the Danube Commission announced, adding that private shippers are racking up losses far in excess of these figures. "Environmental damage of considerable consequence goes far beyond what it would cost the international community to clear the bridges and re-establish navigation," Hellmuth Strasser, head of the commission's secretariat, said. He added that re-establishing the river's shipping is the most difficult task the Danube Commission has faced since World War II. Experts estimate it will cost between $15.8 and $31.5 million to remove bridges bombed by NATO during its air campaign against Yugoslavia, Strasser said.

Regular shipping on the river Danube will not resume before the spring of 2002, following the removal of NATO bombing debris from the river in Serbia, the head of the Danube Commission, Hellmuth Strasser, said. The economies of countries using the lower Danube - mainly Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia - are losing more than $306 million a year due to the obstruction of the river, he said. The Danube has been blocked along a vital stretch in Serbia since 1999, when NATO bombing destroyed three bridges at the city of Novi Sad. In April a Danish-Hungarian consortium was awarded a 26 million euro contract to begin cleaning debris from the river. Such cleaning, however, has yet to begin, Strasser said. - (Reuters)

River Danube traffic between Bulgaria and Serbia partially resumed at the end of June, immediately after NATO'S air war against Yugoslavia finished, according to officials from Bulgaria's state Danube navigation company. "Bulgarian ships are running to Serbian Danube ports, even up to Novi Sad," said the chief of the Bulgarian River Navigation Authority (BRNA) Dimitar Stanchev. Serbian ships are also running to Bulgarian Danube ports, as well as to Romanian and Ukrainian ports, he added. He said traffic was much less than before the airstrikes but said he could not give volumes at this stage. There have been press reports of a Bulgarian private shipping company planning to open a regular line from the Bulgarian port of Lom to Prahovo in Serbia, hoping to attract tourists and traders.

Work on clearing bombed bridges from the Danube River in Yugoslavia could begin in March if Belgrade agrees next week to a proposal that the European Union would help fund, according to EU sources. Removing the wreckage of three bridges destroyed by NATO during last year's 11-week air war over Kosovo from the river at Novi Sad in Serbia is essential to reopen the key international waterway to commercial shipping. However, it will require a compromise on the sensitive issue of post-war reconstruction that could cause friction with the U.S. The $30 million project awaits approval by the Danube Commission, made up of states through which the river flows, including Yugoslavia. The decision requires unanimity.