Brussels, 08/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - Next week the European Commission will propose a Communication on "port services" attached to a Directive that will regulate the allocation of port services markets and an inventory of State aid paid to European ports. In line with the 1997 "Green Paper" on port services, the Commission intends to improve competition between European ports and to impose greater transparency in the markets for services delivered within the ports: handling, piloting, towing, docking and passenger loading and unloading services.
As indicated in EUROPE of 23 December, p.12, the Directive would impose among others:
1) calls for tenders to the allocation of port services markets, in order to guarantee access to all service providers in the market; 2) the separation of accounting between the service activities and the regulation activities, when they are both ensured by the port authority; 3) the granting of authorisations or licences for access for services markets by an independent authority from the providers and according to the criteria of transparency and non-discrimination; 4) a limiting of the duration of the concessions to 5, 10 or 20 years according to the nature of the investments; 5) the right for ship owners to use their crews for holding populations, or the right of holding companies to use other employees that those proposed by the "pool" of port dockers; 6) that these limitations imposed on the number of providers that may have access to the services market, are clearly justified and decided upon by an independent authority.
In its present version, the Commission draft would cover all the ports that have an annual traffic of more than 3 million tonnes of freight per year or 500,000 passengers, or 300 to 350 European ports. As a comparison, according to the latest figures from Eurostat, the port of Rotterdam (world's largest) ensures a traffic of 315 million tonnes of freight per year; the second largest European port, Antwerp, 120 million tonnes and the twelfth European port Gent, 24 million tonnes. Moreover the Directive will only concern commercial services provided, but does not establish a distinction between the services provided by a public or private entity.
Until now the draft Directive has received a cautious welcome from the European Sea Port Organisation (ESPO), which insists on subsidiarity and the respect for diversity in European ports. The ESPO members are notably opposed to the limit imposed on the duration of concessions. Certain private British ports, such as Bristol or Felixstowe, are owners of the land and will probably be the most reticent towards limitations on concessions which the Commission intends to impose. Nevertheless the draft Directive should foresee transition periods taking into account the "legitimate expectations" of the present operators.
The issue of the separation between the port authorities and the service providers will pose problems in several Member States where the two activities are carried out in conjunction, or through a private monopoly as in the United Kingdom or the Scandinavian countries, or through public monopolies. Conversely, condemned in 1991 by the Court of Justice in the port of Genoa, Italy adopted a law banning port authorities from being service providers.
The freedom to use their own handlers should also pose problems in several Member States, such as Belgium for example, where docker pools have the monopoly over handling. The Commission also expects difficulties in Sweden, where the dockers have the monopoly over port services.