Brussels, 09/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), on Thursday 9 February, suggested adding an 11th corridor to those planned by the European Commission in its proposals on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). With this re-drawing of the maps, the CPMR is hoping to make the TEN-T more integrated and to make it do more for the development of maritime transport, said Patrick Anvroin, CPMR Director responsible for transport, speaking at the meeting of the organisation's political bureau.
This move has been made by the representatives of Europe's peripheral maritime regions as little has been done at European level to ensure that the maritime sector plays its full part in reducing CO2 emissions from transport, even though this is a Commission priority. The “sustainable maritime connection” sought by the CPMR would be a fairer reflection of the position of the maritime sector in the TEN-T. The revised TEN-T maps contain 82 ports, nevertheless. Furthermore, this new corridor would offset the possible ending of the Marco Polo programme (which was to shift transport from road to less polluting means, including navigation). Jean-Eric Paquet, Director with responsibility for the TEN-T at DG Transport confirmed: “There will be no successor to Marco Polo, but its aims have been taken up in the proposals on the European interconnection mechanism”. Paquet is sceptical of the added value of the CPMR proposal: “It is not consistent with what we consider as a corridor, and what is important is the content. I do agree, however, with the basics - in fact most of these ingredients are already contained in our proposals”. While the CPMR proposal is taken seriously by the Commission, it does not seem to have been persuasive. However, the idea could be taken up in the EU Council of Ministers. Several member states would back a larger place for the maritime sector in the Commission's TEN-T review. Italy, it is claimed at the CPMR, might be very keen on a further corridor. (MD/transl.rt)