Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: Is the Danube river navigable?
The Danube is navigable by ocean ships from the Black Sea to Brăila in Romania and by river ships to Kelheim, Bavaria, Germany; smaller craft can navigate further upstream to Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. About 60 of its tributaries are also navigable.
In 1616 an Austro-Turkish treaty was signed in Belgrade wherein the Austrians were granted the right to navigate the middle and lower Danube, at that time under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Under the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, ending a war between Russia and Turkey, Russia was allowed to use the lower Danube.
Based on the findings of the European transport R&D project INDRIS (Inland Navigation Demonstrator for River Information Services) and the German project ARGO in 2001, both the Danube and the Rhine Commissions adopted an Inland Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (Inland ECDIS) standard for IENC data and system requirements for the Rhine and the Danube Rivers. In 2001, the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations (UN ECE) adopted the Inland ECDIS Standard as a recommendation for the European inland waterway system.
There are 1,716 kilometers of navigable inland waterways (1,043 km of navigable rivers and 673 km of navigable canals), which are almost all located in northern third of the country. The most important inland waterway is the Danube (part of Pan-European Corridor VII). Other navigable rivers include Sava, Tisza, Begej and Timiş River, all of which connect Serbia with Northern and Western Europe through the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal and North Sea route, to Eastern Europe via the Tisza, Begej and Danube Black Sea routes, and to Southern Europe via the Sava river. The largest river port is Novi Sad (1.18 million tons of cargo tonnage in 2016), while other river ports include Belgrade, Smederevo, Pančevo, Prahovo, Apatin, Bačka Palanka (all on Danube), Šabac (on Sava), and Senta (on Tisza).
The company had obtained this monopoly by refinancing the war-stricken prewar firms, most of which were owned by Austrian or Hungarian interests (the losers in the war). A holding company, the Danube Navigation Co., was organized, and astute financial maneuvering gave to Furness, Withy "the practical control of the traffic of the navigable length of the Danube."
Serbia has a developed inland water transport since there are 1,716 kilometers of navigable inland waterways (1,043 km of navigable rivers and 673 km of navigable canals), which are almost all located in northern third of the country. The most important inland waterway is the Danube (part of Pan-European Corridor VII). Other navigable rivers include Sava, Tisza, Begej and Timiş River, all of which connect Serbia with Northern and Western Europe through the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal and North Sea route, to Eastern Europe via the Tisza, Begej and Danube Black Sea routes, and to Southern Europe via the Sava river. More than 2 million tons of cargo were transported on Serbian rivers and canals in 2016 while the largest river ports are: Novi Sad, Belgrade, Pančevo, Smederevo, Prahovo and Šabac.
With DoRIS (Danube River Information Services) via donau has participated in the development of a decisive tool for inland waterway transport on the Austrian Danube. In 2006 DoRIS commenced operations and has set the standard for navigation information systems all along the Danube. via donau is working at full speed to develop new and improved services. In addition, via donau supports the implementation of River Information Services in the entire Danube region.
These treaties were negated upon Allied victory. In November 1918 the victors established a "Commandement de la Navigation du Danube", with Sir Ernest Troubridge as commander. The Allies' Supreme Committee decided on May 22, 1919, that "despite the existing uncertainty concerning the frontiers and the ownership of the floating material, normal conditions of traffic on the Danube should be established as soon as possible", and an Inter-Allied Danube Commission was formed under Troubridge. Later in the year, non-enemy states were admitted on an equal footing with the great powers; the group met with some success in reopening the river, despite the difficulties.
Since the completion of the German Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in 1992, the river has been part of a trans-European waterway from Rotterdam on the North Sea to Sulina on the Black Sea, a distance of 3,500km (2,200mi). In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the following ten to fifteen years. The amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was made difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War. Clearance of the resulting debris was completed in 2002, and a temporary pontoon bridge that hampered navigation was removed in 2005.
The Danube is by far Romania's most important river, not only for transportation, but also for the production of hydroelectric power. One of Europe's largest hydroelectric stations is located at the Iron Gates, where the Danube surges through the Carpathian gorges. The Danube is an important water route for domestic shipping, as well as international trade. It is navigable for river vessels along its entire Romanian course and for seagoing ships as far as the port of Brăila. An obvious problem with the use of the Danube for inland transportation is its remoteness from most of the major industrial centres. Moreover, marshy banks and perennial flooding impede navigation in some areas.
- Studying the hydro morphological and hydrological conditions of the river in the Bulgarian section, processing the data from the studies and, on its basis, issuing guides, navigational maps, plans, yearbooks, reference books and other river navigational aids for the purposes of the Danube Commission and the Joint Bulgarian-Romanian commissions; 
On December 28, 1854, during the Crimean War (France, Britain, Sardinia, and Turkey versus the Russian Empire), the allies sent to Russia a note urging the internationalization of the river as one of the bases for a peace treaty:
. . . it would be desirable that the course of the Lower Danube . . . be withdrawn from the territorial jurisdiction. . . . In every case the free navigation of the Danube could not be secured if it be not placed under the control of a syndical authority, invested with the powers necessary to destroy the obstructions existing at the mouths of the river, or which may hereafter be formed there.
EAEMDR was established as an organization in 1935 under the name “Danube Hydrographical Service” within the structure of the Ministry of Railways. The headquarters were situated in the city of Lom and the responsibilities of the Service were related to the maintenance of the waterway, creation of maps of the Danube River, conduction of hydro meteorological surveys in the Bulgarian section of the river. In 1949, after the ratification of the “Convention for the sailing regime on the Danube River”, the Danube Hydrographical Service passed over to the Ministry of Defense – Danube Fleet. Four years later the service was reinstated as a part of the Ministry of Transport, information technology and communications and the Navigational Waterway Office was established in Ruse. In the year 1955 the organization passed over under the structure of the Bulgarian River Fleet and in the next year the Council of Ministers adopted a decree, by the force of which the Navigational Waterway Office was restructured into the “Administration for the Maintenance of the Navigational Waterway and Exploration of the Danube River” within the Ministry of Transport, Information technology and communications. 
In December 1999 the Administration was transformed into the Executive Agency for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River.
Besides his comprehensive political ideas, he concentrated on the development of transportation infrastructure, as he understood its importance for development and communication. Part of this program was the regulation of the flow of waters of the lower Danube to improve navigation, in order to open it to commercial shipping and trade from Buda to the Black Sea. 
He became the leading figure of the Danube Navigation Committee by the early 1830s, which completed its work in ten years. Previously the river had been dangerous for ships and was not efficient as an international trading route. Széchenyi was the first to promote steamboats on the Danube, the Tisza (Theiss), and Lake Balaton, also measures to open up Hungary to trade and development.
The Rhine–Main–Danube Canal (German: "Rhein-Main-Donau-Kanal"; also called Main-Danube Canal, RMD Canal or Europa Canal), in Bavaria, Germany, connects the Main and the Danube rivers across the European Watershed, running from Bamberg via Nuremberg to Kelheim. The canal connects the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, providing a navigable artery between the Rhine delta (at Rotterdam in the Netherlands), and the Danube Delta in south-eastern Romania and south-western Ukraine (or Constanța, through the Danube–Black Sea Canal). The present canal was completed in 1992 and is long.
Postwar discussion of the Danube River was begun by the United States in 1945 when President Truman proposed at the Potsdam Conference that freedom of navigation should be assured on Europe's inland waterways. Britain and France were concerned with reestablishing their prewar positions as members of the European Commission of the Danube.
In 1947, the Paris peace treaties signed with Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria guaranteed free navigation.The foreign ministers of Britain, France, the USSR, and the United States stipulated that:
Navigation on the Danube shall be free and open for the nationals, vessels of commerce and goods of all states, on a footing of equality in regard to port and navigation charges and conditions for merchant shipping. The foregoing shall not apply to traffic between ports of the same state.
The Danube is by far Romania's most important river, not only for transportation, but also for the production of hydroelectric power. One of Europe's largest hydroelectric stations is located at the Iron Gates, where the Danube surges through the Carpathian gorges. The Danube is an important water route for domestic shipping, as well as international trade. It is navigable for river vessels along its entire Romanian course and for seagoing ships as far as the port of Brăila. An obvious problem with the use of the Danube for inland transportation is its remoteness from most of the major industrial centers. Moreover, marshy banks and perennial flooding impede navigation in some areas.
Detailed and liberal rules drawn up in this convention for the Danube between Ibraila upstream to the Iron Gate were never applied. Romania did not agree, "and the stretch of the Danube was administered by each riparian state, with due regard, however, to the principle of free navigation."
Regarding rivers, the Danube was navigable throughout its entire course in Yugoslavia, linking the ports of Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Vukovar with Central Europe and the Black sea. Long stretches of rivers Sava, Drava and Tisza were also navigable.
The Agency works in cooperation with the inland waterway administrations in the other states along the Danube River. It takes part in workshops in the field of navigation and inland waterway maintenance and implements projects in the frames of the Danube Strategy of the EU, Bulgarian-Romanian commissions, the Danube Commission, GIS Forum.
The Danube Commission is concerned with the maintenance and improvement of navigation conditions of the Danube River, from its source in Germany to its outlets in Romania and Ukraine, leading to the Black Sea. It was established in 1948 by seven countries bordering the river, replacing previous commissions that had also included representatives of non-riparian powers. Its predecessor commissions were among the first attempts at internationalizing the police powers of sovereign states for a common cause.
The Sava is navigable to larger vessels for between its confluence with the Danube in Belgrade, Serbia and Galdovo Bridge in Sisak, Croatia, upstream from confluence of Sava and Kupa rivers. The confluence marks the westernmost point of the river course designated as a Class IV international waterway in compliance with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's European Agreement on Main Inland Waterways of International Importance (AGN). The classification means that the river course between Sisak and Belgrade is navigable to ships of the maximum length of , the maximum beam of , the maximum draught of and tonnage up to . The Sava River downstream of Sisak, is designated as European waterway E 80-12, branching off from the E 80 waterway spanning the Danube and Le Havre via the Rhine. The largest ports on the Sava River are Brčko and Šamac in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sisak and Slavonski Brod in Croatia, and Šabac and Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia.
The Danube Bridge 2 consists of eight pillars that are in the non-navigable channel of Danube river, crossing from the low lying Bulgarian bank over the small island, followed by its four main pillars, numbered PB9, PB10, PB11 and PB12. The design was to have 13 pairs of stay cables attached to every main pillar in the navigable channel of the Danube river.
Using his wide international experience and personal contacts, he was a leading proponent of the building of navigation canals and river navigation systems in Hungary. On the basis of his international experience, Türr was charged with élaborating a plan for navigable canals connecting the Danube and Tisza rivers.
Later, though, the Soviet bloc intimated the downgrading of the Danube Commission. A Vienna dispatch reported that the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Eastern European equivalent of the Marshall Plan, had created a new, permanent Danube committee of its own — its purpose to draft measures for using Danube water for power, irrigation, and navigation. It ordered at a Moscow meeting that plans be made to raise the level of the river by dams so seagoing ships could move farther upstream.