EUROPE

UK boycotts EU wide Port Services Regulation

12 years ago

Momentum appears to be building in the UK over the boycott of the EU wide Port Services Regulation with reassurance being gained from the Secretary of State for Transport that the government will not accept the regulation in its current form.

PORT REGULATION: UK ports say they don’t need added bureaucracy when things work well already

A cross party of 23 MPS, lead by the MP David Davis, wrote to the Prime Minister in February urging him to stop the proposed regulation, which is widely believed to be a threat to the free market in the UK.

The Rt. Hon. Patrick McLoughlin responded back by letter and said that he recognised the “significant impacts to which the UK ports sector would be exposed to if the proposal were to be adopted in its current form.”

He added that the UK government will be maintaining its dialogue with the Commission to remove the least acceptable parts of the proposal.

The Port Services Regulation would force Britain to appoint a ports regulator with the powers to intervene over prices for cargo handling and the use of infrastructure.

Many British port operators say that this would remove their independence to charge market rates for their services, thus threatening investment and jobs.

Richard Bird of the UK Major Ports Group has pointed out that the UK’s 44 Ten-T ports stand to be greatly affected by further regulation, being ‘trust ports’ receiving no government subsidy.

“We are concerned the reform will interfere where the market is working well causing added bureaucracy, extra cost and conflictions with existing labour arrangements,” he has said.

Added to this, there is widespread resentment over the lack of consultation when the reform was announced.