José Llorca, president of Spain''s National Ports Authority, has publically stated that neither the EU, nor its member states have “clear ideas about the governance of ports”.
In a recent speech, he criticised Europe for a “lack of ideas” on logistics, pointing out that the European Commission has no clear vision and is pursuing contradictory paths.
Its commitment to dedicated freight corridors he views positively. However, the position of the IMF, European Central Bank and the EU towards ports will not lead to improved competitiveness, he argued.
He suggested that the future for freight management lies in the integrated governance of the logistics chain, although concedes from a regulatory point of view this would not be easy to achieve. Indeed, he stressed that, invariably, a country's productivity will remain linked to the overall competitiveness of the logistics chain and it is therefore essential to design a model that is attractive in terms of both cost and efficiency for the users.
Mr Llorca noted that a logistics department had been set up within Spain's Economic Development Ministry for the very first time to look into the various bottlenecks inherent in the existing network. This prompted him to suggest that new logistics legislation was probably needed, although doubted this would be passed in the current parliament.
