ESPO anticipates a memorandum for the next European elections



Today to Goteborg the assembly anniversary of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) has concluded itself with the presentation of the memorandum of the association for the next European elections, in program between the 22 and on 25 May, in which the Harbour Authorities of the EU they identify six points of attention for the next Parliament and the new EU commission. The document evidences the importance of the field of the transports and of the ports for the economic increase let alone for the industrial development, the necessity translate in action politics TRIES for the ports and to realize a true home market of the marine transport in Europe, to promote the development of the European ports in the economic, social and environmental context and to define politics for the ports that allow they to face the future challenges.

The memorandum of the ESPO emphasizes in the first place that the European industry of the transports directly gives job to about 10 million people in the EU and represents about 5% of the communitarian Gross Domestic Product one, since is doubled if account of the fields correlated to that of the transport holds. Moreover the ports constitute real factors of economic increase and, in terms of volume, 90% of the commercial exchanges of the European Union with the remainder of the world pass through beyond 1.200 ports of the 23 marine States of the EU and more than a third party of the goods of the EU transported between the same Member States journeys in the communitarian ports. In the 2010 total traffic of the goods journeyed in the ports of the EU has been of 3,6 billion tons and the traffic of the passengers of beyond 400 million people. The European ports employ directly about 1,5 million people and, according to the recent study of the OCSE "global The competitiveness of port-cities", in Europe every ulterior million tons of harbour traffic generate 300 new places of work in the region in the short term. Therefore, with the document, the association of the European ports prompt the new Commission and the new Parliament of the EU to totally recognize the role of the transports and the ports as engines of the economic increase. According to ESPO, this acknowledgment it would have to be reflected in all the European policies and would have to be supported from all the commissioners and the Head offices, from the European commissioner to the Transports and from the DG IT NOT ONLY MOVES.

In the second point of the memorandum ("No port, no industry") remembers that the European ports are not simple points of transit of the goods and the passengers, but constitutes important industrial clusters that they create a huge added value for their region, and that for localization the industries often prefer a region in which a port is present. "To such purpose - the association specifies - ESPO considers that a net European of the transports working and efficient that connects the European ports with their outback, arranged with politics of the transports that facilitate the commercial exchanges is internal that external of the European Union, it is one of the main elements of industrial politics of the success EU".

The third party of the point of the document remembers that in the course of last the five years the responsibles of politics of the transports of the EU have completed all the efforts for the development and the financial adoption of a new political picture and for infrastructure of transport in Europe and emphasize that "ESPO wishes that the important role that is assigned to the European marine ports in this political new totally will be confirmed also during the performance process". For the association, "the European Harbour Authorities would have to be involved in the corridor platforms on a plan of parity with the other managers of the infrastructure". Therefore ESPO "invites the European coordinators of TRIES to develop a permanent dialogue with the ports and to consult the ports and to relatively listen to their requirements to the development of the corridors". Moreover, specifying to share the necessity to assign to priority to the ports "Core" in the development of the multimodali corridors and in the financing of the projects, ESPO asks the next European institutions to specify what means to be a port ""the comprehensive" Cores" or a port of the transeuropea infrastructural net TRIES in relation to the other political initiatives and to such care it invites the EU commission to clarify the respective roles and attributes of the ports TRY. Moreover, second the association, a real progress in the development of the multimodali corridors can be carried out only if the necessity to realize an infrastructure net of efficient and sustainable European transport actively is supported by all the policies of the EU and, to such fine - ESPO specifies - the EU commission would have to work "for a greater coherence between the policies of its various Head offices involved in the development and the approval of the infrastructural projects. ESPO - the memorandum clarifies - considers therefore that it must be reached a "modus vivendi" between the DG MOVES and the Concorrenza Head office simplifying and slimming the approval of financings publics (national or regional) assigned to financial projects that benefit of a support TRY. At the same time the DG MOVES and the Ambient DG would have to work for a greater efficiency of the procedures of appraisal of environmental impact to the aim to avoid useless delays for the fundamental projects TRIES".

Also for the birth of a true home market of the marine transport in the EU - according to ESPO - "not there is time to lose". The association remembers that a recent study of the European Parliament has calculated in 2,5 billion euros per year the potential gain of efficiency that would be generated by an European only space of the transports. ESPO evidences that the home market for the marine transport is a key factor in order to facilitate the commerce between the Member States of the European Union and that, between all the transport modalities, the home market of the marine transport that less is developed: "still in the 2014 communitarian ships that transport goods from an European port to another - denunciation the association - still considered as coming from outside the European Union. The current systems of customs facilities - ESPO finds - are insufficient and involve alone between 10% and 15% of the marine traffic. This clearly places the marine transport in a competitive disadvantage regarding the other modalities of transport". "To such care - the association observes - it is priority to improve the communication and to simplify the exchange of information between the various parts of the logistic chain"; moreover "the customs norms and procedures would have to be effective and uniform put into effect to the aim to shorten the times of permanence of the goods in port, being reduced so the impact in terms of costs and of times for the business and optimizing I use it of the harbour areas". Precise ESPO that "the operation of customs must remain a neutral element is in the competition between the several ports of the EU and, ideally, in the competition between the ports EU and the near not communitarian ports".

The fifth sollicitation of the ESPO is time to do so as that the European ports, that they operate in an economic context, social and environmental, they are not in competition in environmental field and that the initiatives of environmental politics do not forge the competition between the ports, while the sixth point of the memorandum finds the necessity that the European Union must be "a positive force in the strengthening of the management of the ports and politics of harbour development guaranteeing on one side equal opportunities and certainty of the right and from the other favoring the increase and the development of the ports". The document specific that "the ESPO associates could support a legislative picture that returns the free performance of services applicable to the harbour field, taking into consideration its character and of its specific characteristics and not stopping the ports in strong increase, that it assures transparency whereby financial institution the ports receive financings publics for their infrastructures and/or activity and gives to clear indications on the aids of State (this - specifies ESPO - would not have but to involve disproportionate administrative burdens), that recognizes that the imposition of the burdens and requirement for services harbour minimums constitutes important instruments of management of the ports".

In its participation, stopping themselves on the topic of the aids of State, the Greek minister of the Shipping and Prime Minister Trasporti of the EU, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, have asked the new EU commission to formulate "a stable and clear picture for the aids of Been about to the ports to the aim to guarantee that every investment does not have to be sifted case by chance. This approach case by chance - it has emphasized - cause you delay in the investments and damages the competitiveness of the European ports".