the ECSA proposes to subdivide the European legislation on the ports in single specific norms for activity areas



The European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) is taken part newly on the procedure of appraisal in existence near the European institutions of the proposal of regulations on the ports, that it is introduced last year by the EU commission ( of the 23 and 31 May 2013), denouncing the inefficiency of the legislative project in its current next drawing up to the recent examination by the Council of the European Union ( of 8 October 2014) and proposing to define specific norms for single fields rather than to try to launch all-inclusive regulations that however do not cover every area of activity adequately.

Remembering that the European shipowners have carefully followed the developments of the third attempt of the EU commission to liberalize the access at the market of the harbour services and to improve the transparency financial institution of the ports, than during all the legislative process the association of the European shipowners it has sped up the decisive ones of the EU "not to empty of all its meaning a modest proposal already in itself introduced of the Commission" and that, as a result of the decision to suspend the legislative procedure by the reporter Knut Fleckenstein ( on 13 March 2014), the Italian presidency of the Council of the EU is pressing in order to obtain an agreement of the Council, the ECSA has exhorted the legislators of the European Union "to maintain a sure degree of significance in the regulations".

According to the ECSA, "the currently approved of text from the Council it is unfortunately indicative of the lack of ambition of the Member States relatively to their ports. Not only the Member States have approved of the exclusion of the services of cargo handling and passengers from the chapter on the access at the market - it has explained the association - but also have added to the possibility for the Member States to exclude also the pilotage, without to guarantee an adequate control and the full transparency of the pilotage rates". For the ECSA, "this it strongly limits the field of application of the regulations, increasing the heterogeneity of the legal picture applicable to the ports of the EU. Moreover - it has denounced the association - the relative dispositions to the consultation of the users of the ports let alone a control drive are removed in order to assure the correct application of the norms EU".

"We hope - the general secretary of the ECSA, Patrick Verhoeven has asserted today - than on this particular topic Mr Fleckenstein it will be more ambitious of the Council and will introduce some of the contents that are written off by the Member States". "We praise - it has specified - the intentions of the EU commission and recognize the efforts in order to complete progresses in this particular field. Independently from the result of the legislative process in course, the EU commission would have however to favor the development of the ports and to promote of the efficiency. Progresses on many fields, as for example on the certificates of exemption from the pilotage, are attended for a long time, while the principles of the free access and the transparency are at the market not applied in uniform way in all the ports of the EU. Therefore - he has concluded Verhoeven - I believe that the moment has reached to separate politics of the EU on the ports from the within of the wide normative packages that cover a variety of topics and of services strengthening it with a more surgical approach for specific normative areas that adequately are not covered by the regulations and that they need of a reform, but also fining tune it in single cases of ports in which they are not applied to the norms EU correctly".