A team of specialists in law and economics from Linköping University has started work on an important study of the ownership structure of the Göta Canal. The study, directed by Professor Göran Skogh and Dr Per-Olof Bjuggren, is being conducted by the Henrik af Donner.
The VEV partners have been solicited to inform the study team on the ownership and management structure of their respective waterways.
The idea behind this initiative is that the "performance" of a canal as a monument to be preserved for future generations may be affected by the legal status of the owning body. The Göta Canal is still owned by the Swedish Government and managed through a Board of Directors directly appointed by the Minister of Industry, under rules set up in line with the original "commercial transport" function of the canal, which has now totally disappeared.
History seems to repeat itself from one country to another in the EU, since British Waterways, set up in 1963, was subject to a complete reorganisation in 1987, to enable it to develop the heritage placed in its care on a more commercial basis, whereas VNF was set up in 1991 as a "public corporation of industrial and commercial character", also to give new impetus to management of an infrastructure network undergoing a complete change in vocation and use. The study by the Linköping team will be based in part on in-depth bibliographic research at the international level, but will also be supported by the results of a detailed survey by questionnaire sent to the VEV partners.
The study could provide enlighten- ing conclusions for all waterways, by developing "warts and all" the respective benefits and drawbacks of public or private ownership of such infrastructure ("fiches" 27/47).