Luxembourg, 08/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - By reducing its scope of application, the Transport Council has opted for a watered-down version of the package on financial transparency in ports and opening up port services to competition and will deal with these issues separately. The general approach adopted by transport ministers on Wednesday 8 October in Luxembourg was described as “modest” by European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas, who does, nevertheless, see it as a “small step” forward, following the failure of previous port packages presented by the European Commission.
New Regulation. Following the heated negotiations over recent months, the Italian presidency has managed to get European ministers to accept a compromise text. Some of them agreed to it more out of concern for flexibility than any real conviction (Spanish, Finnish, Dutch and Estonian delegations). The new rules proposed by the European Commission seek to guarantee financial transparency and introduce calls for tender in eight port services in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) maritime ports. The service in question involves shipping, dredging, mooring, pilotage, towing, waste collection, passenger services and handling. These last two services are not, however, affected by the initiative to open up the market. The regulation would mean member states with port management bodies would be able to draw up prior requirements for providing services and possibly limiting the number of service providers. The prices charged will be set out clearly and transparently. In the area of awarding public contracts, the accounts will have to be duly separated and provide details of the way in which taxpayers' money is being used.
Watering down. In their general approach, ministers finally agreed not to consider dredging as a port service but did, nonetheless, decide to make rules on separate accounts applicable to the service. Pilotage is also excluded from the agreement concluded at this ministerial level because the market access rules will not apply to this service, although those on financial transparency will do. This approach was criticised by Finland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Spain, which would have liked it to have been more robust. Spain, in particular, would have liked passenger services and handling to be covered in the section on opening up to competition, given the economic importance of these areas. Lithuania, however, would have preferred dredging to be completely excluded from the new regulation. The member states also decided to exclude from the scope of the regulation's application ports that are located in outermost regions such as the Canaries and Réunion. The separation of accounts will not be applied to certain small ports either, which will be decided on the discretion of the member states themselves. These decisions were welcomed, in particular, by France and the United Kingdom, which were keen to avoid these small undertakings having to take on additional administrative charges.
The delegations that are not completely convinced by this general approach now intend to amend it at the European Parliament, which still has to decide its position. (MD)