On 12 and 13 December 2023, river industry professionals who gathered at the Riverdating event organised by Voies navigables de France at the Grand Palais in Lille could see the progress made on Seine-Scheldt, Europe’s largest wide-gauge river network. Its implementation is now showing very concrete results!
As a partner of the event, the Seine-Scheldt EEIG had a stand where a large operations progress network map was displayed, and waterway professionals could see the state of studies and works on all the axes of the network, in France, Flanders and Wallonia.
December 12 morning, they could listen to live updates on the project by the representatives of the EEIG. Olivier MATRAT (acting territorial director of Voies navigables de France and manager of the Seine-Scheldt EEIG), Frank Serpentier (Seine-Scheldt project manager at De Vlaamse Waterweg nv), Pierre-Yves BIET (director of partnerships and territories at the Société du Canal Seine-Nord Europe), Pascal Moens (Director of Freight Transport and Intermodality at the Service public de Wallonie) and Perrine Lavelle (Head of the Europe Division at Voies navigables de France and Secretary of the Seine-Scheldt EEIG) presented the Seine-Scheldt network in all its dimensions: economic, ecological, social, partnership-based and territorial.
A number of major projects were completed in 2023, including the new lock complex at Vives-Saint-Bavon in Flanders, the reconstruction of the Pont-des-Trous to open the Tournai crossing in Wallonia, the re-routing of the river Oise for the future Seine-Nord Europe Canal, and the reopening of the cross-border Condé to Pommeroeul Canal between France and Belgium. And the outlook for 2024 is just as exciting!
These concrete achievements, which contribute to the development of the areas crossed, are made possible by the ongoing support of the project’s financial partners: the European Commission (through the Connecting Europe Facility), the French Republic, the Flemish Region, the Walloon Region, the Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Grand-Est and Normandy Regions, the French and Belgian local authorities.
