Brussels, 15/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting in Gijon (Spain) on Friday 15 April, members of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and representatives of the European institutions and of the maritime industry discussed ways to make these regions more accessible, within the framework of the recently adopted White Paper on transport and the expected review of the trans-European transport policy network (TEN-T). “Our main concern is two-fold”, the CPMR president and president of the Brittany region, Jean-Yves Le Drian, explained to EUROPE. It is to ensure that maritime stakes are sufficiently taken into account and to ensure that the corridors provided and access ports identified do not penalise the outlying regions.
Implementation of funding measures that can be extended to the most isolated regions, the taking into account of cabotage for short-haul maritime or river transport, state aid for launching new maritime links - these are just a few of the ideas highlighted by the CPMR for attaining its goals. On the basis, for example, of the Franco-Spanish motorways of the sea, the association considers in particular that it is necessary to involve states when a sustainable public transport supply is to be created.
According to the association, the development of maritime transport is essential for reducing the isolation of outlying regions and at the same time to meet the objectives of the White Paper, which aim to ensure mobility for goods and people and to reduce the carbon footprint of the transport system. Nonetheless, according to the CPMR, the White Paper does not appear to calculate the efforts to be undertaken to achieve this by operating the massive modal transfer from road to sea. The objectives set out are under-dimensioned, whether in investment (especially with regard to ports) or in maritime services, the association states in the statement adopted after the seminar.
According to Le Drian, there is a risk of “geographical surcharge” springing from the fact that, by developing sustainable growth, unfavourable concentrations are reached. The best example of this is the English Channel where the recommended transition to low-sulphur content fuels (or even to gasoil) could, for economic reasons, mean that maritime traffic is concentrated in areas that are already congested, said Jean-Marc Roué, who was at the conference.
Thus, to meet needs and ensure equitable development of maritime transport, the CPMR proposes to: - provide for the necessary incentives to minimise the financial risks of players in the sector; - develop a European port framework that is balanced and polycentric for each maritime basin as well as for the island regions, so as to allow intra-European short and medium haul maritime traffic and the European funding that underpins these not to focus only on ports involved in international traffic. It also calls for aid to be facilitated for the start-up of new maritime lines where the market alone (due to the insufficiency of volumes transported) is not enough to reach profitability and specific treatment for the insular regions (Canary Island, Azores, La Réunion, etc). The framework for public aid, the studying of a European “ecobonus” system or the reduction of risk taken by shipowners when they start up (due to state involvement) could facilitate this development.
In order to ensure the seminar is followed up, the CPMR is organising a technical meeting on 3 May on the White Paper and on TEN-T policy in order to formulate its political position on these two aspects at its June conference in the Azores. (A.By./transl.jl)