Brussels, 03/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - Last Wednesday the European Commission adopted a Communication in which it presents its interpretation of Regulation 3577/92 on maritime transport, which regulates the free provision of maritime transport services within a member state. The Commission's interpretation is 'informative' and thus does not imply a revision of the Regulation.
Following its analysis, the Commission believes that it is necessary to ease the provisions on small islands in order to make them more 'attractive' in the eyes of shipping agents (they are defined as islands whose annual maritime traffic is below 100,000 passengers or 40% of EU islands). Instead of a tender procedures (relatively complex), the Commission believes that the awarding of public service contracts for small island services should take place through an expression of interest. Moreover, the duration of these contracts should be twelve years (instead of six years).
The Commission also feels that the obligation of public service should be imposed for certain long estuaries where the isolation of inhabitants is comparable to that of island inhabitants. For the Commission, long estuaries are those whose crossing is at least ten times shorter than the corresponding land journey, on condition that this land journey exceeds 100 kilometres. As with small islands, the aim is to maintain certain maritime connections with few private operators, notably due to their lack of profitability.