EU-ETS review: Europe’s ports plea for action

Currently, the Commission is finalising a proposal to review the EU-ETS Directive 2003/87/EC which was extended to the maritime sector in January 2024.

“The European Commission and Europe’s policy makers must finally draw the lessons of these first years of application. It is high time to act. Europe’s ports are key in realising Europe’s energy transition and energy security goals and guaranteeing Europe’s military preparedness,” said Isabelle Ryckbost, secretary, ESPO.

”We cannot longer accept a policy that creates carbon leakage and risks to destroy the economic strength and competitiveness of strategically situated ports which we desperately need to realise Europe’s overall ambitions in terms of geopolitical and geo-economic resilience, energy transition and security.”

Long battle

ESPO said that since 2021, when the EU-ETS maritime proposal was launched, Europe’s ports have been asking to consider and address the negative impact both in terms of carbon and business leakage.

This has been caused by the current limited regional scope of the EU-ETS maritime applying a 100% ETS tax on voyages between EU ports and a 50% ETS tax on incoming and outgoing calls from European ports.

Ms Ryckbost said that while the first and main impact is being felt in Europe’s big transhipment ports in the Med, there are also clear examples of changes in call orders in other parts of Europe, which leads to a loss of direct connectivity with for instance Asia.

Next to the loss of port calls and connectivity, the affected ports are also seeing an impact on investments in terminal capacity. The capacity in the EU neighbouring countries is increasing steeply and rapidly to the detriment of EU ports.

Last but not least she said, the EU-ETS maritime is affecting negatively short shea shipping in certain countries, with clear examples of modal backshift to the road, which is excluded from ETS until 2028.

ESPO has submitted its proposals for the review of the ETS to the Commission.

First and foremost, Europe’s ports are calling on lifting the 65% transhipment criterion for the list of neighbouring container transhipment ports excluded from the definition of port of call, they also want more attention paid to the specific impact on outermost regions and finally a much largewr share of the ETS maritime revenues going back into the maritime and port sector.

”The European Commission is currently making big efforts and developing new instruments to accelerate, reindustrialise, simplify and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and resilience. But these efforts are a drop in the ocean for ports if the current EU-ETS maritime is not seriously reviewed”, concluded Ms Ryckbost.