ESPO partially is satisfied of the position of the Council of the EU on the harbour services



The association of the European ports partially is satisfied of the position adopted yesterday from the Council of Ministers of the Transports of the European Union on the regulations for the access at the market of the harbour services and the transparency financial institution of the ports ( of 8 October 2014). "The glass - the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO has commented today) - is full means".

Recognizing "the enormous efforts completed from the Italian presidency in order to reach an agreement on this very difficult proposal" and being found that "the Council has completed remarkable progresses on various important issues", the association has manifested appreciation for the steps ahead completed - it has specified ESPO - with "the abolition of the dredging from the list of the harbour services. The dredging, is it of deepening or of maintenance - it has emphasized the association - it must be considered as a part of the development and the maintenance of harbour infrastructures, not as a harbour service".

Moreover - second the association of the European harbour administrations - other important progresses are constituted "by the relative dispositions to the consultation of the committee of the users and the interested parts, choosing a more pragmatic approach from the bottom up", and "from the management of the claims. The original proposal of an independent supervisory body - it has observed ESPO - is replaced by more realistic disposition that previews the definition of a procedure for the management of the claims".

In the empty average part of glass ESPO it has placed the necessity to make "more in order to create harbour politics that ahead represent a step for every single port in Europe". The association has listed three main elements of worry to such care: in the first place "the weakening of the principle of autonomy of the port in fixing own rates, as expected in the proposal of the Commission on May 23, 2013. The European Harbour Authorities - it has evidenced ESPO - need politics that affords they to conjugate with success the commercial interests and publics and to answer to the several challenges that are the market forces are the society impose they. Although their diversity, the European Harbour Authorities considers that a greater autonomy will help them to face the future challenges better. The harbour taxes - the association has remembered - are an important instrument of management of the ports. Giving to the Member States the alternative to supply or less greater autonomy to the ports, the current text of the Council risks to ulteriorly undermine the parity of conditions between the European ports".

For ESPO another element of worry is constituted by the transparency in the financings publics and from the lines it guides on the aids of Been about to harbour infrastructures, factors that - second the association - "remain a priority and a condition essential in order to level pitch between the ports".

At last for ESPO "an ulterior clarification is necessary about some leaves essential things of the text of the Council", between which the burdens for the use of infrastructures and other dispositions.

"The Council - the general secretary of ESPO, Isabelle Ryckbost has commented - has completed important steps towards a more realistic and practicable regulation. But it must be made other efforts. We must still estimate the outcome of the Council in the detail. But a thing is already clear. We want the strengthening of the autonomy of the ports in Europe, as he is proposed by the supported Commission and from the reporter and the main exponents of the European Parliament. We hope that the new Parliament continuous to support to us in this direction".