Vojvodina in the race for European funds aimed at waterway revitalization

The Office for European Affairs and the representatives of the Public Water Management Company “Vode Vojvodine” are participating in the meetings on the initiation of Project “Waterways Forward”, which is related to the management of inland waterways across Europe, in Lille, France.

“As it is well-known, the canal network in Vojvodina is more than 500 km long and it is tremendous economic potential, yet its maintenance in the past was limited due to lack of means and probably some other reasons. Therefore, we are here to be able to apply for European funds through this project, worth more than €3 million, with partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, France and Spain. It is in our interest to improve waterway management, create strategy development plan documents, develop new spatial plans and initiate a more substantial revitalization of this resource. It is very important to involve the level of joint municipalities through which waterways flow, create development projects, attract new investments, give a chance to public-private partnership and establish a constant development of new projects, by means of which a step-by-step improvement in the canal system could be achieved, since no project can be large enough to revitalize it at once. I believe that the canal system, and broadly speaking, efficient water management are tremendous resources for the improvement of agriculture and water transport, development of new tourist attractions, which could result in an increase in employment and economic sustainability in small communities in the country”, said Predrag Novikov, Director of the Office for European Affairs.