Brussels, 16/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, on the eve of the plenary debate and with thousands of dockers demonstrating their opposition to the text, European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said that the European Union's ports policy is not necessarily about the controversial draft Directive to privatise port services within the EU. Mr Barrot said that he hoped that the rapporteur, Georg Jarzembowski, would be successful with the amended proposal, but added that he would be listening to the European Parliament, which is very divided and which rejected the first proposal on this subject two years ago. While not explicitly ruling out the possibility of a third proposal, the Commissioner felt that the EU ports policy was not just about this proposal, but also investment, fair competition rules between ports, greater transparency in the costs of the different services. No matter the outcome of Wednesday's vote, Mr Barrot was sure of one thing: ports had to modernise a little (see EUROPE 9109).
Dockers' demonstration degenerates in Strasbourg
In the European Parliament, the German Green Michael Cramer said in a press release that a black, red and green coalition, speaking of “the conservative government in the Netherlands, the Labour government on Great Britain, the former red green coalition as well as the new black red federal government in Germany”, rejected the ports package, as well as the governments of the Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony Länder. Costs in EU ports are barely half of those of Asian ports and a third of those in the US, stated the MEP. Danish Social Democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said that in its present form, the proposal satisfied no-one, it played with the security of employment of workers in European ports and should be substantially amended. The President of the Party of European Socialists, while sympathising with the workers who had come to Strasbourg to demonstrate against the text, nonetheless condemned those responsible for violence which resulted in damage to the Parliament.