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It took a bit longer than we expected, but I hope you have all been able to enjoy your drinks before dinner starts.

We have approximately half an hour of a couple of important announcements, but also looking a step ahead and the evening will be opened by Fotini Ioannidou,

director of Waterborne in DG Move of the European Commission, and I would like to welcome Frattini on stage. I'll be there.

Thank you, Yap, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Good evening.

At the end of this first day of Connecting Europe Day 2026,

and it is a great pleasure for me.

To see so many members of the waterborne community of Europe gathered here today. We certainly all agree in this room.

That Europe's waterborne sector is a strategic asset for the EU.

It strengthens our resilience in trade, energy security.

Safety And defense And it's a very complete ecosystem. It spans across shipping, inland navigation, ports.

Shipyards, equipment manufacturing industries, and many other industries such as classification,

societies or dredging industries.

It is a firm belief from the European Commission that this sector plays a very crucial role in Europe's competitiveness,

sustainability and strategic autonomy.

And it is also a true powerhouse for innovation.

When it comes to greening of the fleet, when it comes to modernizing infrastructure,

and when it comes to digitalization and automation.

And in this you can see in our exhibition on the side,

the very many projects that this sector can showcase demonstrate in this spirit of innovation.

And we are very proud and glad that we are the ones that are co-financing most of those. But tonight is an important political moment.

We have 2 significant documents that will be handed over. To the European Commission.

The first one is the Danube Declaration, which reflects a shared commitment to improve the reliability,

resilience and sustainability of navigation on the Danube.

The second document is the the waterborne technology roadmaps,

which sets the sector's ambition to invest in innovation across key domains and help share future research and industrial priorities.

So We will start the event with a keynote speech of our Commissioner.

For sustainable transport and tourism, apostoloszi Tzitzikóstas that should be arriving anytime soon now and Apologies for this delay,

but he should be on his way.

So bear with us with still a few minutes and he will be with us to address you all. Hm? No. Some No. And The Commissioner is with us.

So it is my great pleasure to welcome you, Commissioner, thank you for being with us today.

And I would like to ask you to address us all, speaking about the importance of the two documents,

the Danube Declaration and the Waterborne Technology Roadmap, but more broadly as well on the future of the waterborne sector. Thank you. The floor is yours. Good evening to Olof you.

I see some good friends here in, in this room and I'm really happy to, to see you again.

After all, for me,

the waterborne sector is one of the most important sectors on transport for Europe.

And I won't repeat your own figures, of course, but you know that the volumes of goods that you transport every day, after all, You know,

the supply chains that you connect to global markets and in doing so,

you have become a backbone for trade and industry in Europe. So what I want to talk about. Today is connectivity.

Europe's geography makes maritime and inland waterway transport a natural link between member states, regions,

and peripheral areas as well as between Europe and the rest of the world.

The Danube is a real lifeline for Central and Southeastern Europe.

And I don't use the word lifeline lightly, believe me. Since February 22.

Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been blocked on and off.

And Ukraine turned to the Danube and to the European Union.

To export its produce and import what its people need.

From fuel To medical supplies,

and today the Danube connection is once again sustaining Ukraine's trade.

But even in peacetime, inland waterways offer additional capacity and flexibility.

The Danube is a key corridor for supply chains today, serving heavy industry in particular.

Rivers and canals increasingly attract cruises, another great contributor of the EU economy.

And they help relieve pressure on road and rail networks and increasing the resilience of our overall transport network.

Now This year, water levels reached new lows.

Once again, The Danube has never been that low. We saw disruptions again.

And once again we spoke about the need for more coordinated action to safeguard navigation, especially.

On the Danube on this very important artery.

Against the backdrops of today's security challenges and climate change,

the signature today of the Danube Declaration carries. Particular significance.

So I welcome the commitment shown once again by the Danube repairing countries and their shared responsibility to keep this vital transport corridor reliable,

resilient, and sustainable. Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends.

The Danube is in many ways a microcosm of the European Union. And why do I say this? Because the Danube is shared. So what are the challenges?

And we must meet them with joint solutions.

So the next step in my view is very clear.

We need to turn these political commitments into action and implement them together. There is no other way. This means Better maintenance, more reliable infrastructure. And sufficient staff resources.

And funding The declaration makes one point very clear national efforts,

close cooperation between them, and strong EU support must indeed go hand in hand.

The Danube Commission also has an important role to play,

and I'm very pleased the Commission's Director General Manfred Seitz is with us this evening.

On my side,

I can confirm that the Commission stands ready to support you and will follow your progress very closely.

So my dear friends, Let's continue in this spirit of close cooperation. And with constant dialogue.

I also would like to say A few words on innovation and technology.

Quite frankly, We cannot grow or compete anymore without them.

New fuels and logistic technologies, innovative vessels and ports.

Each opens doors to new products, new services, and new business models.

And each can help increase productivity and support the sustainable and digital transitions. By signing the innovation roadmaps today.

The sector is sending a very, very clear message.

You are committed to investing in technologies and solutions for the future.

In areas like maritime technology, short sea, and intercontinental shipping. And of course Inland waterways transport.

This is a clear indication of the sector's continued drive to innovate.

And build on the achievements of the zero emission water 1 transport partnership. The Commission is doing its part too.

In the spring, We published our EU maritime industrial airport strategies setting out what is needed to build a competitive,

resilient and sustainable future for both sectors. We want to safeguard.

And to strengthen our maritime manufacturing and shipping industries.

While at the same time, Accelerating innovation, digitalization. And decarbonisation. Turning these into drivers of industrial opportunity. And we are already investing in innovation.

For every €1 invested by the Commission in the zero emission waterborne Transport Partnership,

at least €6 have been attracted in private investment.

In areas like wind-assisted propulsion systems, ammonia-powered engines, and maritime electrification.

And this, my friends, is clear evidence of the sector's commitment. But it's also a reminder.

Of the scale of the investment that is needed in the sector.

To make waterborne transport even more competitive, resilient, and sustainable.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The road maps can pave the way to take the EU maritime industrial and ports strategies further.

And they will make A very important contribution.

To the EU's future research agenda and the maritime policymaking.

And I certainly look forward to hearing more from you on how we can work closely together in the coming years to make Europe's maritime and inland waterway transport even more competitive,

even more resilient.

This is what Europe needs from us, and this is exactly what we are going to deliver together. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Commissioner.

Thank you for your remarks, but also thank you for your strong support to the waterborne sector.

And everybody here knows how much importance you attach to this sector, so thank you for that.

Now, I'd like to call on stage,

the coordinator of the Rhine-Dnube Transport corridor, Mrs.

Margarida Marques, to hand over the poster referring to Danube Declaration. Thank you, thank you so much.

So, dear Commissioner, dear distinguished guests, thank you very much to be here and I'd like this is this is not the text of the the Danube Declaration but we understood that the commissioner already read the,

the, the text so you made some comments on the Danube Declaration.

I think that you said the main point. It means this is a compromise. This is a compromise.

Danube is a European tool, is a European issue, it's not a national issue,

and we need to work together to contribute to the quality in the different dimensions of this river. That's why this declaration is very important.

It is a compromise among the different actors, political.

Ministers, political responsible from the different Member States,

but I need to say that this is not the beginning of this is not the end of the ceremony.

This is the beginning of our job, because when we look at what happened during the summer,

we know that we need, we need to do more and better. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

I would like now to call all the heads of delegation,

that have signed the Danube Declaration for a 5 milli photo. Please come on stage. But We are lucky so. Great 1 2nd. Thank you. So thank you very much. Yeah.

So Wonderful So,

I'd like now to call on stage Mr. Mr.

Jaap Gebraad, Secretary General of the Waterborne Technology Platform,

who will introduce the second important document that will be handed over to us today.

I know it's another speech, and it's almost 8 o'clock in the evening.

I'm not going to continue for 15 minutes.

I have been asked 3 which I think I will make, and then it will be a short movie to showcase what the sector is already doing in implementing the road maps,

and there is still one part in the exhibition which was of huge interest next to the other parts of the exhibition.

Dear Commissioner, dear ministers, dear industry leaders, dear ladies and gentlemen, we did it. Today we published the 9 road maps.

There is a bit of finally we did it. And it is truly we.

It's not the secretariat, it's not the association, it's the sector.

But I will come back to that point.

As already said, the road maps are on research, development, innovation, upscaling,

and deployment with concrete targets towards 2035, 2040, and 2050.

I'm often being asked why is the technology platform being called waterborne,

and I will explain it once again because it includes Olof the segments of the ecosystem and not in all languages. The translation of maritime is the same.

The road map has already set span from the maritime technology sector, port ecosystems, inland waterway transport,

short sea shipping, ferries, cruise ships, ocean-going shipping, offshore vessels, and the blue economy.

The signing today by 18 sea level representatives,

19 sea level representatives emphasized the need to innovate Europe's waterborne future.

Furthermore, different member states have signed and will sign supporting statements for the road maps,

which includes Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Poland, and Sweden, as well as Flanders.

Our diversified sector because we often hear that the sector is fragmented, but I like to call it diversified.

With diversifying strategic ambitions, has been able to align agendas, resources,

and efforts among segments and businesses, including SMEs that dominate in the field.

So that makes the situation to come to 9 of these road maps sometimes quite complicated.

This already, as we just heard,

resulted in concrete projects concrete products coming out of the Partnership on Zero Emissions Waterborne Transport.

They are not only demonstrated on board, first commercial orders have been signed as a result of demonstrating these technologies on board,

ranging from energy efficiency to cutting pollution to air to new fuels.

If we then align this with the European controlled order book for new ships, we just take that part of the equation and we made a snapshot,

so we don't have an overview of the fully controlled European order book for new ships,

but it's amounting to over 165 billion in orders for at least 850 vessels.

So there is a huge need for shipyards, propulsion, fuel systems,

and energy efficiency technologies to find their way to be able to achieve the targets set timely. 9 roadmaps, 5 months.

We started after an event in Athens on the 30th of April and we said, OK, we need to work on implementing.

Somewhere in between, and we are 5 months further and the broader waterborne sector has been involved.

Not only our members, but everybody who wanted to provide input had the opportunity to provide input,

and we launched a series of open consultations over the summer and I had to count,

we processed 520 contributions received from the broader waterborne sector to fine tune the technology roadmap. I would like to thank.

Everyone involved in that process, members and nonmembers,

for providing us with any input you could to strengthen the content of these road maps.

I would also like to thank the sponsors of tonight for making the event possible and also for the contributors in terms of the exhibitions.

Now we can shape the future together and we have to do it together.

There was already referred to in one of the previous interventions,

there is a proposal for a possible partnership on competitive and sustainable waterborne transport in the new MFF.

Member states, please keep vocal in supporting that that partnership is needed.

Your continued support as always is much needed.

Now before shaping the next steps, if you allow me to take another minute of your time, one of our members has developed a short movie on how to implement one of the road maps,

which is specifically on work boats or offshore,

and we would like to take you in that one minute of showing where is Europe is strong and how would that roadmap be implemented.

And then I hope Work boats are small vessels performing a crucial role on Europe's waterways.

They are the unsung heroes that maintain trade, supply energy,

connect communities, patrol our infrastructure, and keep us secure.

Europe is the world leader in designing, building, and maintaining these vessels.

That leading position can be secured if policymakers and industry join forces.

The work boat alliance unites the maritime industry to keep Europe in the lead.

Continuous investment in waterborne research and innovation is key to staying competitive.

Bringing work boats into the EU ETS will speed up the energy transition.

The industry is ready to lead the world in work boats and wants to step into the EU industrial value chain alliance.

Let's use the momentum of the European maritime industrial strategy to keep our leading position.

And then it's time for the handover of the posters to the commissioner, so I would like to welcome the commissioner on stage.

We have quite some internal exchanges on how to hand over the roadmap, so I would like to invite Maya Novakovic,

the chair of the board of Waterborne, and Maria Böhmer, the coordinator of Waterborne, to hand over the.

I So, dear Commissioner Tsitsi Tzitzikóstas, this is the culmination of the event, and it's not only the culmination of the event tonight,

it's the cherry on top of the cake of all the work that has been done.

It's a symbol of our 9 technology roadmaps that we would like to hand over to you.

And if I may add, we are not just handing over 9 technology roadmap documents,

but we are handing over our shared vision and our shared commitment for the waterborne transport sector. Meaningful. Let Thank you.

We would also like to invite the signatories of the poster on stage for a family picture.

Yes I We can go a little bit closer together. OK. Yeah, somewhere.

There's always Perfect for this to go behind perfect, but there's a lady, she has to come. OK.

Happy people For today about So Very much. Wonderful. OK For the closing words. I give the floor back to Fanido.

So again, thank you very much, Commissioner, for being with us tonight.

I, I would like also to thank all those that have been involved in the preparation, all those that have signed,

the Danube Declaration, the waterboard technology roadmaps,

and these two documents send a very, very clear message.

Europe's waterborne community is committed to cooperation,

to innovation and resilience and is ready to build together the competitive and sustainable future for maritime transport,

inland waterways and ports.

I would also like to thank all our partners tonight, but also all participants for having joined us tonight and most importantly,

I would like to thank you for your everyday work you are doing in order to keep Europe's waterborne system a system of excellence.