Motorways of the Sea

First introduced back in 2001, the much-vaunted European Union’s Motorways of the Seas (MoS) concept to shift traffic from the roads to the sea has made disappointingly slow progress. The victim of over-wraught bureacracy and a lack of clear definitions, this project, introduced by the European Union (EU) to make better use of sea and inland waterway capacity, has become something of a damp squib. However, that could all be about to change and ports with an eager eye could benefit from funding and increased business in the medium term.

When it was first introduced, the MoS concept looked to harness short sea shipping (SSS) services as a cost-effective, energy efficient and climate-friendly alternative to extending the terrestrial motorway network. MoS was incorporated into the Trans-European transport network (TEN-T) and Marco Polo II funding programmes and both existing and new SSS services were eligible to become part of MoS. The caveat being that they had to prove they formed part of an integrated door-to-door logistics chain and could concentrate flows of freight on viable, regular, frequent, high quality and reliable SSS links.

But from an outsider’s perspective, the EU’s attempt to implement the MoS programme made little progress. However, Patrick Verhoeven, secretary general of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), is still championing the concept. While he acknowledges that there is some confusion about the overall MoS concept and a certain reluctance in some of the designated MoS regions to interfere with ongoing commercial projects, the concept is now undergoing something of a revamp with the recent publication of a Commission Staff Working Document.

In this, the European Commission announces its aim to widen the scope of the MoS programme to incorporate high quality, short sea shipping services. Even existing high quality SSS services with clear MoS characteristics should be recognised as forming part of MoS, it says. For the time being, this addition to the original programme is in the consultation stage, with all potentially interested parties being quizzed for their views.

Ports and operators involved in the SSS sector are eligible for subsidies; these are applicable for both the services themselves and for infrastructure at the ports. However, not all funding comes from the same source.

Under the TEN-T programme, MoS projects will only receive funding for concrete projects as from 2008. However, MoS projects can also receive funding under the second Marco Polo programme, for which the EU reveals it has received a substantial number of requests. As far as Mr Verhoeven is aware, no actual services are so far operating as a result of EU funding. Nevertheless, the MoS branding is already in use today, being deployed by several commercial operators as a marketing tool.

According to Mr Verhoeven, it does appear that the Commission is aware of certain difficulties among would-be recipients of grants in identifying the appropriate funding schemes and understanding how to correctly apply for financial support. The Commission has therefore announced it is to explore the establishment of a one-stop help desk for the financial engineering aspect of MoS projects.

“ESPO members have told us that the necessary requirements to get funding are difficult to fulfil. This is because they have to provide elaborate forecasts and be able to demonstrate the commitment of business partners, among other things. This is not easy to do,” he says.

One of the other major potential problems associated with funding is to prove that a recently launched short sea service seeking this as part of the MoS programme wouldn’t have been introduced anyway as a normal commercial undertaking and could therefore have survived without a subsidy. Mr Verhoeven acknowledges this possibility, but says that, at this stage, it has not been able to prove this one way or the other. This is because, so far, only routes linking France and Spain have really begun to explore EU funding and no grants have yet been issued. Indeed, the application process has been somewhat lengthened as the Commission asked for those parties involved to seek additional participants in proposed schemes.

“In the North Sea and Baltic regions, the option to provide funding to services has so far not been taken up. There, the approach has been to concentrate on improving infrastructure. In the other designated MoS regions, sector professionals are still at the master plan and study stage,” he says.

Asked whether ports themselves can be direct beneficiaries of the MoS programme, Mr Verhoeven says that they can, but it is important that they can prove they have developed a complete door-to-door integrated MoS project, which includes infrastructure upgrades.