Project; ongoing
EUSDR Priority Area(s): PA 1a Waterways Mobility
COMEX² succeeds the international RIS COMEX project (2016-2022) and the CoRISMa project (2013-2015) and, with 20 partners from 13 countries and three cooperation partners from Switzerland, Serbia, and Ukraine, will take up the baton for the harmonised implementation and optimisation of River Information Services (RIS) in Europe over the coming years. With a focus on the future-oriented further development of the transnational portals (EuRIS and CEERIS) as well as national systems and services, COMEX² also includes improving the resilience of the systems and services. Within the CEERIS portal, administrative processes are digitalised such as the reporting via the DAVID forms in the context of border control procedures.
Objectives: The already operational EuRIS Portal provides harmonised River Information Services (RIS) for the entire Danube Region and beyond according to legal provisions on the European level. It thus meets the target of ensuring the online provision, availability, and interoperability of up-to-date Fairway Information Services in the Danube Region. In the coming years, the services will be improved further.
Within the CEERIS portal, administrative processes are digitalised such as the reporting of the DAVID forms in the context of border control procedures, thus contributing to the simplification, harmonisation and digitalisation of administrative processes. The digital platform made border controls much more efficient and achieved a notable improvement of administrative procedures in inland navigation on the Danube and its navigable tributaries.
Need and (expected) impact: RIS (River Information Services) were implemented nationally in all Danube riparian states in the early 2000s. For inland navigation, which is largely cross-border, this meant retrieving fairway and traffic-related information from different national portals. To overcome the system boundaries between the individual national RIS implementations and to adapt the information services to cross-border inland navigation, a new service approach called “Corridor Management” was defined for RIS. In the future, shipping operators will be able to access all information relevant to the execution of their transports and administer electronic reporting of transport-related information from transnational portals EuRIS and CEERIS, which are already operational since 2022.
Macro-regional dimension: The following countries are connected within the EuRIS Portal: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia
Cooperation partners (not yet connected to EuRIS): Switzerland, Ukraine
The following countries are connected within the CEERIS Portal: Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia
Countries envisaged to join the CEERIS portal in the coming year: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Serbia
To be extended towards Ukraine, Poland, and Germany within COMEX²
Stakeholders involved: Apart from the official national RIS providers (either state companies or departments of Ministries of Transport) implementing the project, the direct inclusion of the shipping industry (shipping companies, forwarders, sector representatives) as users of the portal is essential. In stakeholder surveys as well as regular stakeholder contacts the sector requirements are systematically surveyed and incorporated into the specification of the new services.
Budget and Funding: Total project budget: EUR 36 456 050 co-funded by CEF2
Further information: https://www.viadonau.org/en/company/project-database/comex2-river-information-services-corridor-management-execution2
Contact: Mr Mario Kaufmann, Teamleader International Projects, viadonau,
