Brussels, 13/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Rapporteur Knut Fleckenstein (S&D, Germany) is proposing to introduce substantial changes to Chapter 2 of the draft regulation on market access to port services. This will be done through the removal of the provisions on market access in the report he presented to the Transport and Tourism Committee on Monday 12 October.
He is effectively opposed to a single model being imposed on all European ports and indicated that “the subsequently amended chapter now focuses on the organisation of port services”. This chapter therefore concentrates on the provisions on minimum requirements, a limit on the number of service providers, the services provided in the perspective of the public service obligation and social guarantees.
Several points in the European Commission legislative draft have also been amended. First of all, the scope is now expected to affect the port services directly provided to users, which would de facto exclude dredging because this affects a maintenance task. The social provisions on the work regime were to a large extent removed because these are covered by the social dialogue committee for the port sector at a Union level and whose work began in June 2013. Nonetheless, respect for national social standards was included in the list of minimum criteria that needed to be respected. On the question of limiting the number of service providers, Fleckenstein is proposing to take into account the size of the market and space limitations on the water, in an effort to guarantee “safe and secure port operations that respect the environment”. Infrastructure fees are expected to be set out by the port manager “in total autonomy and based on their commercial strategy” and not by the Commission. This is on the basis of the point of view expressed by the member states in June 2014. Following requests by member states, the rapporteur is proposing to impose a 24-month deadline for applying the regulation, once its entry into force is officially announced.
The legislative draft's trajectory has not been an easy one since the legislative proposal was published in May 2013. Knut Fleckenstein MEP was appointed rapporteur at the time and submitted a draft report in November 2013 but due to the debates and numerous questions pending, MEPs decided to wait for the European elections before resuming the legislative work. The member states at the Transport Council expressed many different objections in 2014, even criticising the form of the legislative act and expressing a preference for substituting the regulation with a more flexible format of the directive or in other words, non-binding legislation. The draft report will be put to a vote at the committee on 10 November next and is expected to be put to the plenary on 15 December this year. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)