Concessions and aids of State to the ports to the examination of the Commission and the Parliament EU



Last Tuesday the EU commission has published a directive proposal on the modernization of the system award of the contracts publics who include dispositions in order to increase to the transparency and the correctness of the procedures of allocation of the public concessions, between which those relative ones to the harbour areas.

According to the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), at the moment it is not still completely clearly which it will be the impact of the directive on how of allocation of the harbour areas. Observing that the Harbour Authorities, to prescind from their order legal owner or, according to characterize as agencies or aggiudicatrici administrations of the directive, the association of the European ports has evidenced that it is not clear if all the contractual relationships with the suppliers of services fall back in the within of the directive and, in particular, such doubt sussiste with respect to contracts with the operators of the harbour terminals that, in Europe - it has remembered ESPO - I am of varied nature.

"We must see - it has found the general secretary of the ESPO, Patrick Verhoeven - if all the agreements on the terminals fall back in the communitarian definition of concessions. We - it has added - support the principle base that the obligations of correctness and transparency must prevail when the Harbour Authorities assign harbour areas so that they are used for the performance of cargo handling services, but - it has specified - we consider that this would have to be applied in proportional way. This means that us it must be a sufficient connection with the operation of the home market. However the threshold that the directive proposal introduces us in so far as seems rather lowland. An other important point is that the Harbour Authorities would have to be able to reflect their strategies in the definition of the criteria of selection and award. Here the directive proposal does not seem to allow the necessary flexibility".

"Moreover - it has continued Verhoeven - we are in agreement with the Commission on the fact that the duration of the contract must be limited and proportional, allowing a consistent return on the investments also maintaining a correlated risk to the management. To our warning - it has specified - the lenders of titular services of the concessions must not straight have a full load and automatic rifle of extension of the concession, but we are convinced that if a titular operator of concession behaves well and is engaged to continue the investments us would have to be space in order to be extended its agreement with the Harbour Authority. Also in this case we must estimate if and in that way such possibilities of delay can be compatible with the picture of the directive proposal. In any case - it has concluded - it is positive that the Commission proposes to exclude contracts in vigor for the duration of their execution".

Always tuesday, near the Commission Transports and Tourism (TRAN) of the European Parliament, is introduced the temporary version of a study on the aids of State to the ports that is commissioned by same TRAN to Buck Consultants, than has realized it in collaboration with ISL and Catram Consultants. The relationship emphasizes that the public financing of the marine ports must become more transparent and evidences the urgent necessity of lines guides on the aids of State.

According to the authors of the study, such lines guide would have to include a binding infrastructure definition for which the aids of State would be permissible. The conclusions emphasize moreover possible distortions deriving from the policies on the concessions and from the indemnifications for environmental reasons and moreover they recommend to face the distortions of the competition between the European ports and the ports in the bordering third-country and suggests to undertake an initiative near the WTO in order to resolve this problem.

ESPO has favorably received the initiative of the commission TRAN: "for a long time - Verhoeven has remembered - we ask setting up for lines guides in order to guarantee legal certainty to the private investor and publics and parity of conditions in all Europe. We invite the European parliamentarians to remain faithful to theirs demanded precedence, insisting on the fact that the next "package on the ports" of the Commission does not lack to supply a clear series of guidelines on the aids of State that they support the development of the harbour field".