On Wednesday 4 March, the European Commission presented its ‘EU Ports Strategy’. As anticipated by Agence Europe (see EUROPE 13800/1, 13820/1), this is based on five pillars: competitiveness, sustainability, security, investment and social cohesion. It is partly on these pillars that MEPs and stakeholders have reacted.
“We will future proof these gateways to Europe for the long term”, announced Apóstolos Tzitzikóstas, European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, at a press conference. They facilitate around 74% of foreign trade, handling more than 3.4 billion tonnes of goods and almost 395 million passengers every year.
“Drawing on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) cohesion funds and InvestEU, we will support our strategic assets with particular attention to the specific needs of small and medium-sized ports and those serving our islands and our outermost regions. (...) Through EU funding, advisory support and public-private partnerships, we can de-risk innovative projects”.
Expectations in terms of decarbonisation and sovereignty. For Isabelle Le Callennec MEP (EPP, French), it will be important to ensure that projects to modernise and adapt to the challenges are eligible for the annual €10 billion collected through the Emissions Trading System (ETS) (see EUROPE 13811/3), and that the ‘competitiveness’ chapter of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) devotes substantial resources to this area. “Otherwise, the strategy will remain nothing more than literature”, she warned.
Her colleague Jens Gieseke (EPP, German) stressed the importance of assessing the involvement of external state-backed actors, notably China, in port assets. “We need concrete safeguards, stronger investment screening, and a coherent European framework that protects our critical infrastructure”, he said.
For her part, Jeannette Baljeu (Renew Europe, Dutch) called for investment in infrastructure, digital systems and clean technologies to support military mobility and the resilience of ports to geopolitical, cyber and criminal threats. She also spoke of the need for decarbonisation.
On this point, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) welcomed the Commission’s commitment to prioritise support for the deployment of Onshore Power Supply (OPS) in ports, both in terms of port electrification and transparency in OPS pricing.
The World Shipping Council (WSC) also welcomed the recognition of the need to simplify the requirements of the ETS and the Maritime FuelEU programme (see EUROPE 13746/5). However, it stated that the strategies do not go far enough in simplifying trade to support the EU’s competitiveness agenda.
Several environmental NGOs - Seas At Risk, One Planet Port, Zero and theInternational Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) - have taken the view that the two strategies (see other news item) fall short of the ambitions needed to protect the EU’s seas. They urged Europe to “strengthen nature protection and marine ecosystems, accelerate zero-emission solutions and fully integrate ports into its ocean governance framework”.
To read the Commission’s Communication: https://aeur.eu/f/l0i (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)