Gijon, 03/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting this weekend in Gijon (the Asturias), the EU's transport ministers set out a seven point strategy for developing shipping in the EU. The main elements of the strategy are simplifying administrative and customs procedures, improving infrastructure and interconnection services between rail transport and shipping and technical harmonisation. The strategy will be translated into an action plan to be assessed under the Dutch Presidency at the end of 2004, explained the President of the Council, Francisco Alvarez Casco. The seven point Gijon Declaration will be the European doctrine for the development of cabotage, noted the Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, adding that the doctrine would allow faster progress in negotiations when the Commission presented its proposals.
Cabotage is the only form of transport that has displayed growth comparable with road transport over the past decade, noted the Commissioner, but huge potential remains to be exploited. Maritime transport within the EU has grown by 3% a year since the 1970s and now caters for 40% of freight transport. Over the same period, road transport rose by 4% a year and accounts for 45% of freight (as against 8% for rail, according to an analysis unveiled in Gijon by the Spanish Presidency. Maritime freight transport has expanded in terms of liquid freight in particular (which makes up 55% of total freight), pointed out the Commission in its most recent report on the effects of liberalisation on cabotage in Europe (see EUROPE of 15 May, p.17). It is particularly competitive for long-distance transport - the average distance freight is transported is 100 km by road, 270 km by inland waterway, 300 km by rail and 1385 km by short-range shipping, noted the Commission in its June 1999 Communication on developing "short distance" maritime transport. The aim now is to make cabotage competitive for other types of freight and over shorter distances, noted Alvarez Casco.
Ministers noted that developing cabotage would make it possible to ease congestion on roads through the Alps and the Pyrenees in particular and to preserve the environment. They take a more nuanced view with regard to how it is to be achieved, noting that there is a gap between Northern countries that feel state intervention should be restricted to easing administrative procedures and Southern countries which want a more pro-active intervention, explained a Spanish diplomat. The Spanish minister summarised the debate by calling on the private sector to invest in public-private partnerships to develop infrastructure and ships suitable for cabotage, noting that public support shouldn't create an uneven playing field. The Commissioner was very frank, stressing that there had not been any change in perspective - public aid is banned. The main points of the Gijon Declaration:
Simplifying and harmonising procedures. Francisco Alvarez Casco said that simplification and harmonisation were required to lift administrative frontiers. Customs procedures are currently a form of discrimination between road and sea, noted Loyola de Palacio, since a lorry going from Lisbon to Hamburg doesn't have to complete any customs formalities in the single market, whereas a ship is subjected to customs operations and inspections for the same destination. Such formalities sometimes waste up to half a day, which makes the system less effective. Dutch minister Tineke Netelenbos focussed on the need to not overburden shipping with draconian phytosanitary and safety procedures.
The declaration calls on the European Commission to assess the viability of proposals concerning customs, health and veterinary procedures, including the use of e-customs, an automatic identification system and the voyage data recorder (black box) for short-distance maritime transport.
At the Gijon Council the Commission unveiled a guidebook of customs procedures in the different Member States which should make it possible, along with industry, to identify the main obstacles in order to prepare a new proposal, if necessary. It is also looking at the use of black boxes and an automatic identification system to ensure that ships actually have made a direct journey between two European ports. This would make it possible to cut down on controls of intra-Community traffic, explained Loyola de Palacio. In theory the Council will adopt two texts in June unveiled in the framework of the Erika package, making it compulsory to introduce an identification system and black boxes on board. The Commission could make additional proposals so make this equipment the norm for all short distance maritime transport, it is said at the Commission. "If administrative problems could be resolved, the share of maritime transport in freight transport as a whole would increase from 40% to 60%", a European official assures.
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Competitiveness of port services: The declaration calls for "measures that favour an offer of port services with high quality/price ratio", mainly through an "offer of service without unnecessary or unjustified cost or restrictive practices that artificially increase costs". The Barcelona Summit had already called on the Council to rapidly reach an agreement on opening up port services to competition. After the negotiations that took place on the fringe of the Gijon meeting, a political agreement could be concluded during the Transport Council of 17 June.
Technical harmonisation: Most delegations considered it is necessary to improve the compatibility of infrastructures, rolling stock, intermodal loading units, services, information and contracts systems, notes the declaration. To begin with, the Commission is expected to present a directive before the end of the year on the format of containers, palettes and crates used by the different kinds of transport, in order to improve the loading of short haul vessels, states a Community source. For the time being, the ISO norms used for goods transport by road or rail does not, for example, allow two palettes to be placed side by side on vessels. "Our aim is to define the guidelines, in the hope that industry will follow", Commission sources said.
State aid and competition: Reflecting the divergent positions of the ministers on the necessary weight of public intervention for the promotion of cabotage, the declaration specifies that "the support of public authorities, necessary for promoting the development of this kind of transport, must be carried out in a way that dies not create competition distortion". In this way, "the national measures and the Marco Polo programme, which must soon be approved by the Council and the Parliament, should give major impetus to this kind of transport, whether it is a question of services or infrastructures".
The Council should in principle reach a political agreement on 17 June on the Marco Polo programme, which would allow co-financing of the start-up phase of new combined transport services. The Member States still, however, express different views on how the programme is to be financed. The Commission foresees an overall budget of EUR 115 million for 2003/2007.
The United Kingdom and Denmark, in particular, insisted during the debates that public support for the development of cabotage should not bring about competition distortion, while France urged for "targeted" public support for starting up new maritime activities. Georgios Anomeritis, of the Greens, invited his colleagues not to be "dogmatic" about the issue. Public aid, limited to 30% of investment, should be possible by combining funding from the Marco Polo programme, and from national and regional authorities, says a French diplomat.
Creation of corridors and "sea highways": The declaration notes that there is a "political will to cooperate in order to develop specific projects, linking corridors and coast lines of Member States and their neighbours in order to create maritime highways in the context of trans-European networks". During the meeting, the Finnish minister presented sea highway projects in the Baltic, and the Spanish, French and Italian Ministers took stock of progress within the working groups that they have created for studying the means to develop maritime transport between their ports. French Secretary of State for Maritime Affairs, Nicole Amelie, urged for pilot projects for corridors supported by targeted aid to be identified. "Reflection is under way on a link between France and Ireland, but also for overcoming natural obstacles in the Alps and the Pyrenees in particular", though links Mediterranean links, she said.
Private sector participation: "It is very important to ensure that all actors are involved in the intermodal chain. Initiatives such as a network of focal points, national offices for the promotion of maritime transport, and the Forum of maritime industries, could contribute to this objective", states the declaration. As the Commission had proposed in its communication of July 1999 on maritime transport, the aim of "focal points" and promotional offices would be to diffuse information on the possibility of combined transport in order to improve the image of the sector in particular.
Shipbuilding: The declaration notes the "need for a vessel specialised in short distance transport (…) and improved environmental performance". Along these lines, "the industry should work to improve its success in the field of emissions, mainly of SO2 and NOx". "EU and IMO action in the global context could be studied with the industry". In its 1999 communication, the Commission noted that maritime transport is far more efficient that the other modes of transport regarding energy. It produces less CO2 per tonne transported. On the other hand, the "nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions produced by maritime transport cause concern" and the "level of sulphur dioxide (SO2) is clearly higher than for other means of transport". Measures to reduce SO2 and NOx were adopted at the International Maritime Organisation in 1997, but did not take effect, failing ratification.
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SO2 emissions in grams/tonne-kilometer are 0.29 for short distance maritime transport, as opposed to 0.031 for road transport and 0.036 for rail. NOx are 0.311 for transport by sea, 0.978 for road and 0.472 for rail.