DEFINED TODAY THE EXECUTIVE PLAN TO BOOST THE NORTH WEST MEDITERRANEAN PORTS

A "fruitful meeting" that one occurred today at the San Giorgio palace in Genoa among the local Port Authority and those of Barcelona and Marseilles. With such words the president of the Genuese Authority Giuliano Gallanti summed up the results of the meeting with the colleagues of the ports which take part in the Intermed committee.

An operative meeting, following the one occurred on September 25 in Bruxelles with the European Transport Minister Neil Kinnock.

In fact, the meeting defined in detail the strategies the three North West Mediterranean ports intend to follow to take care of their interests within the Union. Gallanti, during the press-conference held at the end of the meeting, listed the main decisions taken.

First of all, Intermed intends to give to himself a legal form. That will be made by transforming Intermed into a European Interest Economical Group (GEIE), so that to be recognised by the European Union.

Once the GEIE will be established, Mr Gallanti said, the Spanish ports of Valencia and Tarragona will join Intermed, whose candidature was sponsored in Genoa by the President of the Port Authority of Barcelona Joaquim Tosas i Mir.

It has been also decided to set up two working groups to handle in a practical way the different lines of intervention jointly agreed by the three ports.

In the meantime, exchange information and news will occur, starting, among the others:

a comparative study on the different costs of port performances
a tentative to harmonise statistical data
an analysis on the protection and the safety of both the merchant and the passenger sectors as well as of the environment.

A further topic of great importance is short-sea-shipping. In the short-sea-shipping segment, added Mr Gallanti, "the national matters do not exist any more". And the work has to be addressed towards the improvement of the modal distribution and of the increase of inter-modality, key objectives of the transportation politics of the European Union which can be reached just with short-sea-shipping.

Talking about the Southern port system Mr Gallanti discussed on the controversial arisen these days on the developments of the Italian rail links along the North-South direction. The same lines that the Minister of the Environment Edo Ronchi would have defined to be the more important within the picture of the links for the Centre Europe markets, therefore foreseeing a particular attention to high-speed rails between Rotterdam and Gioia Tauro. But the tone of the fight has already lowered.

The President of the Port Authority of Genoa has, in fact, affirmed that the Mediterranean Sea can become a system and, within such a frame, Gioia Tauro has a place.

"Therefore no polemics exist, not even with Algeçiras. But it must be clear that" - went on Mr Gallanti - "Gioia Tauro is within the system whether he does like he did, and whether in the future he will do transhipment". The president of Barcelona Port Authority replied by also talking about the anti economical aspect of a railway of 1,300 Km connecting the Calabrian port to France and Switzerland.

Another big chance for the North West Mediterranean ports is given - concluded Mr Gallanti - by cruises. And within such market the three ports are not competitors.

Joaquim Tosas i Mir, who is also president of Intermed, remembered the necessity for the three ports to have a proper acknowledgement of their role in the "Green Paper" that the European Commission is currently elaborating.

Gathering the strength - carried on Mr Tosas - is now, more than ever, indispensable: Barcelona, Marseilles and Genoa have since a long time tried to establish cooperative agreements. The current concentration trend of economic interests and logistic spaces together with the necessity to face specific problems makes such agreements more than necessary.

Then he also presented further initiatives, agreed today, for the improvement of the conditions to produce services and the creation of standards to give advantages against market operators. In fact, it has been decided to operate with:

joint promotional campaigns towards ship owners, traders and big loaders
joint studies to promote short-sea-shipping and the improvement of port services
joint actions of technical assistance within the North African area
special moment of information exchange
joint actions within the field of EDI and Euromar
joint actions on problems regarding the protection of the environment, with a particular reference to the MARPOL regulation and to the code of practise written by ESPO (European Sea Ports Organization)

At last, Joaquim Tosas remembered that Intermed has to work along many directions, with proposals and solicitations towards both their relative governments and the European Parliament as well as the Commission in Bruxelles.

Full support to the initiatives given also by the French representative, led by the president of the Marseilles Port Authority Henry Roux-Alezais, who fully agreed with the operative addresses decided today.And the commercial responsible for the port of Marseilles Gattullo, attending the press-conference, underlined the chances for an economic and employment development that the Southern European port can get.

In a note Intermed specified some results on traffic reached by the three ports. Genoa, Barcelona and Marseilles moved, in general, goods in 1996 for 161 million tons, 33.9 million tons of various goods and a container traffic of 2.1 million teu. They are figures that -compared with the results of the North European ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp - represent, respectively, 34%, 21% and 20%.

Intermed also highlighted the continue growth of traffics, for either the general goods, the containers (that registered an increment of 30% in '96) and the specialized traffics (cars, fruits etc.)

The next meeting among the Intermed partners will be held in Barcelona, after the presentation of the European Green Paper, at the end of the year.

Bruno Bellio