MEPs from the European Parliament's transport committee largely adopted (46 votes in favour, 2 votes against, 0 abstentions), on Tuesday 9 October, the draft report produced by Gesine Meissner (ALDE, Germany) on port reception facilities for the deposit of ship waste, and wanted to regulate the quantity of waste deposited by ships in ports.
This report echoes the European Commission's proposal of last January (see EUROPE 11940).
While the votes of the transport committee MEPs are broadly in line with the compromises reached by the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs (see EUROPE 12112), the MEPs nevertheless voted in favour of regulating the amount of waste deposited by ships in ports.
In fact, the Commission's proposal suggested that states should be required to introduce an indirect charge on ships for the use of port reception facilities, without taking into account the quantity of actual waste deposited by ships. However, the MEPs are asking that "the indirect fee should cover the normal quantities deposited with regard to the category, type and size of the vessel". This would theoretically leave the possibility for port authorities to charge ships an additional fee if this "normal amount of waste" is exceeded.
However, the MEPs voted in favour of a compromise amendment, the coherence of which with the previous point should be clarified in future inter-institutional negotiations ('trilogues') with the Council of the European Union. The reference to "maximum dedicated storage capacity" to justify a possible additional charge was indeed approved, thus further limiting the possibility of introducing this additional charge.
While these two amendments seem a priori inconsistent, it would seem that the aim is to give ports the possibility of introducing an additional charge only in exceptional cases.
MEPs also voted on the negotiating mandate for this text. The trilogues with the Council will therefore be able to begin, the latter having adopted a general approach last June. Two initial meetings are planned for November. (Original in version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)