"This agreement is very important for the Czech Republic and will make life much easier for the employees of the navigation companies. It is also evidence of the trust between the two parties and their good cooperation," said Klára Němcová, Director of the State Navigation Administration, at the signing ceremony.
"We are aware of the fact that passing the exam in the mother tongue will help Czech navigation entities to have easier access to German waterways. We want to make navigation on the Elbe between the Czech Republic and Germany as easy as possible," said Hans-Heinrich Witte, President of the German Directorate General for Waterways and Navigation.
For ship drivers operating in the Federal Republic of Germany, obtaining this certificate is an existential necessity. In addition, the examinations are relatively expensive in Germany, so there will be considerable financial savings for the candidates and therefore for the navigation businesses.
The examinations will not only apply to the German section of river Elbe, but can also be taken for the Rhine, Weser and Danube sections.
In Czech and in the Czech Republic
A so-called special certificate of the ship driver is required for navigation on waterway sections with special risks. It is awarded on the basis of an examination organised by the state in whose territory the special risk section is located, in this case Germany. However, the new agreement will allow this examination to be taken in Czech, in the Czech Republic, at the
offices of the State Navigation Administration.
The examination is oral. Completing a certain number of voyages in a given section is the pre-condition for taking this exam.
The "special risk" sections are those areas where there is a higher incidence of navigational accidents, complex morphological conditions affecting the manoeuvring of vessels or problematic communication. These sections may be declared by the EU member state on whose territory they are located, after prior notification to the European Commission.
A big step for domestic waterway transport
The signing of this agreement is a significant achievement in foreign relations in the field of inland waterway transport between the Czech Republic and Germany. The Czech side perceives the current action by Germany as a step that will positively affect the access of Czech companies to the European market.
The co-signatory was the President of the
GDWS, the German institution that controls the federal waterways, has the role of navigation authority in the area of vessel and passenger eligibility and also performs the tasks that belong to the Waterways Directorate and the state river basin organizations in the Czech Republic.
The head of the GDWS territorial office in Magdeburg and a representative of the Federal Ministry for Digitalisation and Transport also attended the signing on behalf of Germany. For the Czech side it was the management of the
State Navigation Administration and its employees who will be directly involved in the examinations.