EU short sea shipping plea

In an open letter addressed to the Commission, FEPORT together with CLECAT, ECASBA, ECSA, ECS, ESN, ESPO, Interferry and World Shipping has highlighted short sea shipping as a sustainable form of intra-European transport and a solution to traffic congestion.

“Unfortunately, the sector has been unable to achieve its full potential due to a lack of investment and the need to comply with considerably greater and more onerous regulatory and administrative burdens than its competitors moving cargo by road or rail,” the parties stated in the letter.

In addition, the parties highlighted the need for “effective policies” to be put in place and implemented to “allow all shipowners, ports and terminal operators carrying and handling Europe’s external and internal trade to easily access funding to boost efficiency and reduce emissions, to modernise ports, including their infrastructure as well as equipment on terminals, and improve the connection of the maritime leg to the rest of the logistics chain”.

The parties also say the vocal and welcome support by DG-MOVE for the European network of short sea promotion centres also needs to be backed up with effective financial support to enable them to fully develop their capabilities and promote the mode in the most effective way possible.

Reducing regulatory and administrative “burdens” would bring significant benefits to the sector, say the parties, but continued adherence to “outdated policies” has “prevented advances”.

FEPORT, CLECAT, ECASBA, ECSA, ECS, ESN, ESPO, Interferry and World Shipping are now calling on all Member States and the Commissions to collaborate on a “forward-looking approach”.

Elsewhere, the parties say a number of EU Member States will now have implemented their maritime single windows on 1 June 2015 as required by the Reporting Formalities Directive. They says this lack of uniform standards and harmonisation of data requirements for reporting will “adversely impact effective Europe-wide data exchange”.

In addition, the importance of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to fund projects along the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) has been highlighted.

The parties says they hope the letter will encourage the Commission and Member States to work together so the maritime sector can achieves the outcomes envisaged in the Athens Declaration and provide the levels of service and environmental sustainability which Europe and its citizens expect.

The letter follows the Mid-Term Review of Maritime Transport Policy to 2018 discussed at European Shipping Week.