Brussels, 10/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - Thursday's Transport Council proceeded to an initial exchange of views on the new proposal to open up port services within the EU to competition, which was presented to the delegations by the Commissioner for Transport, Jacques Barrot. In light of the positions presented, it is no exaggeration to say that, without being totally opposed to the principle of a liberalisation of these services, the delegations which took the floor showed considerable scepticism on the content of this new proposal (EUROPE of 14 October). It is worth noting that the Commission's previous proposal on this, which was presented in 2001, ended up being rejected on 20 November 2003 by the European Parliament, after three years of negotiations.
For Germany, the new proposal needs to be reviewed from the bottom up, in order to avoid making European ports more vulnerable. It also feels that an analysis needs to be carried out in order to assess the impact of such a directive on the maritime sector. Whilst the United Kingdom is in favour of a liberalisation of port services, it shares Germany's views, and also feels that the current proposal is less satisfactory than the previous one. There was also some scepticism on the part of the Danes, who feel that the authorisation system planned is too strict. The Netherlands, who are also in favour of liberalisation, takes the view that the proposal will bring about needless administrative costs and contains too many derogations. France, for its part, said that it would pay particular attention to the authorisation and self-assistance schemes, and to the transition period laid down in the proposal. Lastly, despite its overall positive attitude, Spain stressed the need to maintain a balance between the opening up of port services in the private sector, and the notion of public services.