Brussels, 30/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The conciliation committee on the opening of port services up to competition resulted in an agreement on Monday evening to a backdrop of demonstrations by dockers in several ports of the EU. Dockers expressed concern about the consequences of the proposal for employment. The committee, composed of European Parliament and Council representatives, found a compromise on the most controversial points of the proposal of directive: pilotage services, self-handling and compensation systems. The agreement, however, was reached with difficulty mainly within the Parliament delegation where 7 MEPs out of 15 voted against allowing a difficult vote to be envisaged in plenary where the text must have simple majority of the votes. The agreement must also have Council approval (by qualified majority).
The agreement covers: - self-handling: the parliamentary delegation managed to restrict the practice of self-handling -which allows a shipowner to use his personnel and equipment for the loading and unloading of vessels- to sea-faring crews. The agreement therefore rules out the use of the shipowner's ground staff for loading and unloading vessels. It also provides for the possibility for Member States to submit the practice of self-handling to prior authorisation depending on strict criteria (employment, vocational qualifications, social and environmental issues); - pilotage services: these services will be included in the scope of the directive (which the Parliament had rejected in second reading). Member States, however, will have the possibility to submit the authorisation to practice pilotage services to strict criteria (mainly concerning maritime safety, public service requirements) which makes some fear the persistence of monopolies; - compensation: Member States will be forced to compel a new service provider to grant compensation to the previous service provider only in the case where the latter has seen its concession period cut back because of market opening. However, as the Council recommended, the level and the modalities for compensation are left to the discretion of national rules; - authorisations: Member States will be able to call upon the relevant port authority to make it compulsory for port services providers to obtain prior authorisation subject to several criteria (professional qualifications, insurance, etc.); - transparency of financial relations: the parliamentary delegation managed to make it an obligation for any port or port system to provide information on its financial relations, including with public authorities, Member States and the Commission in order to prevent State aid causing competition distortion.
The Parliament's rapporteur on the dossier, German Christian Democrat Georg Jarzembowski said he was confident about the plenary vote on the compromise, to be held in December. "There will be those who will not vote in favour, especially among the Belgians and the Dutch, but most MEPs will agree with the compromise", he said. However, given the opposition within the parliamentary delegation at the conciliation committee (representatives of PES, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL and EDD felt that the compromise was too far from the position adopted by the Parliament in second reading while two members of the delegation, British Socialist Brian Simpson and Belgian Liberal Dirk Sterckx, said they would vote against the issue in plenary), its president, Italian Socialist Renzo Imbeni pointed out that majority support in plenary could not be guaranteed.