The warning about the risk that the inclusion of sea transport in the EU ETS of emission allowance trading and the consequent possible circumvention of this system by ships that could climb ports outside Europe to avoid to purchase quotas, avoidance that would penalise the activity of European ports, particularly those of transhipment, has been repeatedly denounced by several maritime-port organisations and several political organizations, national and international, and was relaunched yesterday by the Italian Trade Unions UilTransport and Filt-Cgil as well as by Fit-Cisl.

"After the recent proposals for changes and legislative developments affecting TEN-T networks (Trans-European Transport Networks), the European Commission is moving forward with a new measure that, if approved," the European Commission said. could penalise Italy-The measure contained in the Fit for 55 package, Amendment of the European emissions trading system in transport, called EU-ETS, provides for an applied taxation to ship owners in excess of 5mila tonnes, to respond to the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While sharing the purpose, we believe that it is designed, with an aggravation of costs for shipowners, to deescalate Italian ports, starting with that of Gioia Tauro, one of the major hubs in the Mediterranean, favouring operativeness. of other scans such as Tanger Med or Port Said. On this issue we will call on the intervention of the ETF and the ITF, respectively, the European Federation and the International Federation of Transport Workers, to take a stand against the respective institutional levels, at the end of prevent the Italian port system from being penalized. We need to protect jobs and, at the same time, value the resources and the potential of the sector. " In order to avert such a risk, Italian trade unions have called for a national government intervention at the EU ( of the 12 and 12 September 2023).

The subject was also the subject of a question by the parliamentarian Maria Grazia Frijia of Brothers of Italy at the Chamber of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Chamber in which she said that " with the Directive 2003 /87/CE, the Union European Emission Trading Scheme ("EU-ETS") has been established , a measure aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the scope of which has been extended to air transport in 2014 and to maritime transport with Directive 2023/959 that European Member States are required to transpose by the end of 2023, 'which' since 2025 the shipping companies will have to purchase permits ("EUAs") for each tonne of CO2 emissions released in the atmosphere recorded during the previous calendar year. After an initial period, during which the burden will vary from 40% percent to 70% percent of what was issued, the companies will have to pay 100 percent of the emissions generated in intra-EU routes and 50% percent of the emissions in 2027. international routes from or to a European stopover, "which" recent studies have demonstrated the heavy implications for the national port sector arising from the inclusion of maritime transport in the ETS, in relation to the risk of a progressive relocation to the ports of North Africa of the transshipment activities of containers previously carried out in European airports, "which" the same directive provides for a tool that should be countered such a possibility (the so-called "300-mile rule"), which, however, is, in fact, unfit to stem the potential risks of relocating traffickers today from domestic terminals, as in the case, for example, of the Port of Gioia Tauro, that risks losing all of its traffics in favour of African ports as the companies that make stakes in the Calabrian port will not be able to bear the costs associated with the ETS scheme, equivalent to an estimated total of more than one billion euros annually, " and finally that " the Directive requires the European Commission to avoid from the outset the phenomena of relocation of traffics by providing for the elaboration of an analysis that assesses the effects of the regime on the trades ; for the purpose of averting the flight of traffickers and the investment bloc, with repercussions that are likely to fall on the consumer side, this analysis should examine ex ante, with the involvement of the maritime-port sector, the effect of the on the competitiveness of the European Union transshipment ports, under the cost and disparity of treatment with respect to extra-EU ports, "with the question it was intended to know" whether and what initiatives of competence it intends to adopt, also at the relevant European locations, to arrive at a timely review of the ETS system before the process of transfer of the maritime lines becomes potentially irreversible. "

In response, on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, it was the Undersecretary Tullio Ferrante. "In reference to initiatives to avert the implications for the national port sector stemming from the inclusion of maritime transport in the Emission Trading System (ETS) in light," it said in a statement. of the EU Directive 2023/959, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security that represented the following has been affected. This directive, amending Directive 2003 /87/CE, has been the subject of a long and complex negotiation period that has affected the complex institutions and stakeholders. The possibility of opportunistic behaviors of shipping companies, consisting in the prediligence in ports outside the Union for its own maritime transport activities in order to avoid the application of the mechanism, have been subject to studies by the Commission, as well as discussion within the Climate Change Expert Group, leading to the identification of certain ports located in the vicinity of the Union that could be privileged for this purpose, which will not be considered as scallots in the monitoring of the extra EU trails. In this sense, the definition of a limit of 300 nautical miles from a port under the jurisdiction of a Member State for the exclusion of the definition of a port of scale has been deemed to be a proportionate response to such possible behaviors opportunistic, which balances the additional burden with the risk of circumvention of the application of the mechanism. The exclusion from the definition of port of scale above will only apply to the livelihoods of freight vessels in certain ports not of the Union, where container transshipment accounts for most of the commercial traffic. Furthermore, in order to ensure the proportionality of the measure and to ensure that this leads to equal treatment, it is considered appropriate to take into account the measures in force in third countries that have an effect equivalent to those of the Directive 2003 /87/CE ".

So Ferrante recalled that " on August 21, the public consultation was published by the Commission to receive commentary, until September 18, by the holders of interest, inherent in the proposal of the act of implementation identifying the ports of transhipment of neighbouring containers within the meaning of Article 3-octies-bis, paragraph 2, of Directive 2003 /87/CE, in cases where : the transhipment share of containers exceeds 65% per cent of the port's total container traffic ; the port is located outside the EU, but less than 300 nautical miles from a port under the jurisdiction of a Member State ; the port is located in an extra EU country that does not effectively enforce measures equivalent to the Directive. "

"On the issue, the Port System Authority of the Southern Tyrrhenous Sea and Ionian conducted a study of the scalo of Gioia Tauro, a strategic port for the national transport sector for the role of" port, " he said in a statement. of transhipment ", the eventful of which alone, accounts for almost 28% of the general total of the national container segment and 77% of that transhipment container. The results of this analysis suggest the need to identify solutions to stem the potential critiques of the questioner. "

"The amendments to the text of the directive, through the exclusion as port of scale for container ships" of a port of transhipment of European or neighbouring containers, " the Under-Secretary stressed, would allow specifically, to insert Gioia Tauro into the same list in which ports such as Tangeri Med and Port Said are entered, applying the same requirement as a "share transhipment" greater than 65% on the total handling containers. "

"MIT has initiated an interlocution with all the Port System Authority to see if there are other ports that fall within the same situation as Gioia Tauro," the company said in a statement. distortions of the market that could result in an antieconomicity to invest in the infrastructure of transhipment terminals located in the territory of the Union, and in particular in Italy, extending the scheme applied to other non-European Mediterranean ports also to European transhipment ports ".