Luxembourg, 05/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Council is far from being convinced by the European Commission's proposal on a ports package aiming at financial transparency and opening up market access to port services. EU transport ministers shared their many reservations at the Transport Council on Thursday 5 June.
The Greek Presidency gave the European ministers an update report on this issue, highlighting the delegations' difficulties both on the form and the substance of the Commission's proposals. Most delegations, led by Germany, would prefer the legal instrument for regulating market access to be a directive and not a regulation. A number of small maritime countries (Malta, Cyprus, Croatia and Lithuania) spoke of the specificity of smaller-sized ports, which have their own way of operating and allocating contracts to maritime operators. Other delegations (Belgium and France) wanted to exclude the application of European legislation to certain services - such as dredging and piloting. The French delegation also wants just the ports of the core TEN-T network to be subject to the ports package. Croatia and Slovenia highlighted the problem of contracts signed before the entry into force of European rules.
While the European delegations seem to endorse the Commission's resolve for transparency, the diversity of their claims promises to make the Italian Presidency's task a hard one. (MD)