Brussels, 30/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - European Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has announced that the Commission will be presenting, by the end of the year, a "port package" the aim of which will be to clarify competition rules for the attribution of port services (towing, mooring and pilotage, etc.) and State aid. Speaking during the General Assembly of European Ports last week in Tarragona, Loyola de Palacio also pointed out that the Commission should, in parallel, present a proposal for reducing the administrative strain of short distance maritime transport, that is, between European ports (as opposed to cross-Ocean transport).
Along the lines of the "Green Paper on Port Infrastructures" of 1997, the future Commission communication would contain: a) a clarification of State aid admissible for port installations, b) an inventory of current financing, c) rules of transparency for attribution of port services. Commissioner de Palacio does not, however, speak of the controversial matter of pricing for access to port infrastructures.
As far as port services are concerned, several problems are not currently resolved in a satisfactory manner, said the Commissioner, raising a series of questions that should be covered by the Communication announced: a) How can private service providers get a fair chance where a public body provides the same service? b) "How should licenses and authorisations be granted? Certainly not behind closed doors, as is still often the case today. c) How should public service obligations be respected? d) How can the social dimension be addressed?
"The rules must ensure that any conditions for service providers, and that includes potential service providers who require concessions, are clear, non-discriminatory, transparent, proportional or relevant", noted Loyola de Palacio. The aim of the Communication will be to ensure that independent companies may have real access to the markets for port services, often currently ensured by public or private monopolies. The communication will mainly insist that port authorities should not be judge and party, proposing separation between activities for market attribution and the provision of services by port authorities.
As far as State aid is concerned, the communication should clarify the "grey areas". There are very clear-cut cases: "a road leading to a port and used by hundreds of vehicles a day, open to all users, is an infrastructure investment and not state aid". Similarly, "a terminal, taylor-made for the handling of big paper rolls shipped by a specific company and built in order to ensure that this very company calls at the port in question and not at a neighbouring port constitutes state aid, if building costs are not reflected in the charges". Other cases are less clear-cut: "if a port deepens its bed in order to allow access to a bigger generation of ships, but only one company actually calls at the port with such ships - is it a state aid?".
Finally, regarding administrative simplification, the Commission should present a directive harmonising the documents needed at the entry to European ports, making compulsory the use of harmonised documents within the International Maritime Organisation. Administrative procedures appear as obstacles to the development of short distance maritime transport, according to an inquiry on "bottlenecks" currently carried out by the Commission among the parties concerned. The results of these studies will soon be diffused, said Commissioner de Palacio.
Speaking in January 1999 on the green Paper on Ports and Infrastructures, the European Parliament had called on the Commission to present proposals for opening maritime services up to competition and for making State aid more transparent (Jarzembowski Report). The Transport Council in June 1998 followed the same lines concerning State aid, but was far more cautious regarding port services and what could, according to some, constitute a beginning of liberalisation. Sweden, which will take on the Council Presidency at the time of the debates on the communication announced, should mainly face the dockers who ensure not only port authority tasks but also services.