ECs proposed Port Services Directive slammed – again

“While the proposal aims to balance competitiveness and quality of services in EU Ports, the Commission fails to recognize that many European ports are currently among the most efficient and cost effective in the world? Furthermore, the liberalization of technical-nautical services of pilotage, by considering this as a commercial service, is contrary to the European Policy on maritime safety.

“It is also the seafarers’ and dockers’ belief, ” continues the statement, “that work which has traditionally been undertaken by dockers should continue to be performed by shore based, registered and well trained port workers.

However, the proposal, in the context of Short Sea Shipping, would allow the crew to handle cargo.

“The safety and well-being of seafarers has not been taken into consideration by the proposal. Seafarers in general, and in particular seafarers on vessels of a limited size, which have smaller than average crews, are subject to fatigue.

This fatigue results from a growing number of tasks that the crew are required to perform, the rapid turnaround times and the fact that the vessels navigate in congested coastal waters.

“The extra work caused by the security duties required under the ISPS code has caused extra work for seafarers who are already overburdened and being required to work excessive hours. To add cargo handling and lashing and securing cargo is inhuman and will also jeopardize the safety of the ship and those who are sailing it.”

Meanwhile, Giuliano Gallanti, recently elected chairman of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), has launched an appeal to the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the Commission to consider jointly with the port sector a fundamental revision of the new Directive proposal on market access to port services.

“We have adopted today in ESPO a series of practical guidelines on which we think a sound and pragmatic European policy framework for seaports can successfully be developed”, said Gallanti, “and we believe the Commission should have waited for a thorough debate on these before submitting its new Directive proposal.

“I am afraid that the proposal we now have on the table is not going to help ports in facing their common challenges”, he added.

“Instead of creating an attractive climate for muchneeded investments in ports, it will probably scare potential investors away. The new proposal would need a lot of reworking before we could give it our blessing.”

The Commission text at present foresees compensation calculated according to unused assets rather than lost revenue.

“Share prices largely reflect future earnings rather than assets, so the method of calculation is a concern to us, ” said one port developer.