Dutch Liberal MEP Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (photo) hosted this Wednesday a lunch-meeting at the European Parliament on the integration of ports in the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). The initiative was taken in the context of the on-going revision of the TEN-T guidelines in which ports will play a cornerstone function.

“In its own-initiative report Parliament supported the development of a core network backed up by a comprehensive network”, said Mrs. Hennis-Plasschaert, “The main challenge is now to give concrete shape to this core network. This inevitably will bring the position of ports centre stage as they are the main nodal points combining both seaborne and land-based transport modes. The main difficulty will be to identify priorities however.”

Guest speaker was Prof. Dr. Theo Notteboom of the Institute of Transport and Maritime Management Antwerp (ITMMA) who presented the main findings of an economic analysis of the European port system which was commissioned by ESPO last year.

“Maritime, inland and distribution networks should combine network flexibility on the one hand and concentration and bundling of flows on the other”, said Prof. Notteboom, “This may sound like a paradox, but both principles are vital. Flexibility avoids the risk of low competition and limited choice whereas a fair degree of concentration will generate economies of scale and density and also allow genuine co-modal solutions.”

The well-attended lunch saw the active participation of members of the TRAN Committee of the European Parliament and their assistants, representatives of DG TREN and ESPO.

“Developing a TEN-T core network means making choices”, concluded ESPO Chairman Victor Schoenmakers, “This is why we are currently elaborating our conceptual TEN-T policy perspective into a more operational proposal.”

Both the ITMMA study and the ESPO policy perspective are available from the ESPO website.

On the occasion of its second Project Management workshop held on 12 and 13 January, the TEN-T Agency presented its objectives for 2010.

One of the main objectives is to provide support to DG TREN in the context of the TEN-T policy revision and the mid-term programme review. To that end, the Agency will make an evaluation of the TEN-T projects implementation. Mr. Paquet, Acting Director - Transport, Logistics, TEN-T and Co-modality, explained at the workshop that the review would serve the purpose of showing the European Parliament and the Council that the TEN-T programme is well administered and that if projects can’t deliver results then consequences should exist. The review results are expected by September – October. According to Mr. Paquet, the assessment of the situation will be done on a programme level and on a project basis. The Commission expects that the review will help to achieve a faster implementation of the projects.

Three technical interactive sessions took place as well, addressing the whole project process, from the calls, evaluation and selection process and decisions, to the project monitoring and payment cycle. Several examples of good practices as well as a number of lessons learnt from the 2009 evaluation process were discussed with the participants. During one of these sessions, the criteria used for the evaluation of TEN-T project proposals (relevance, maturity, impact, quality) were further clarified. Non-compliance or missing environmental requirements would be one of the main causes of non-acceptance of projects.

All presentations can be downloaded from the TEN-T Agency website.

Special Interest Seminar on Russian and Baltic Ports and Post-Conference Tour to Tallinn Accompany Intensive Two-Day Programme held in the Finnish Capital.

As announced before Christmas, this year’s ESPO conference will be held in Helsinki on 27 and 28 May and is organised in partnership with the Port of Helsinki and the Finnish Port Association. Theme of the conference is “Living and Working with Ports”, a theme which puts the human factor in ports centre-stage. The programme is now reaching completion with most speakers having already confirmed their participation.

The conference starts with an economic outlook of the port and shipping sector which will be introduced by the renowned transport geographer and economist Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue of Hofstra University New York. He will especially focus on the implications of the crisis in terms of market structures and organisation and discuss these with a panel of leading industry people.

ESPO Award Jury Chairman John Richardson will then lead one of the principal thematic sessions looking at creative ways in which ports can function in harmony with surrounding communities. Case-studies of Gijón (winner of the first ESPO Award) and Helsinki will be put in the broader perspective of a new Code of Practice ESPO is preparing in this field (see article: “People around Ports” Project Enters Final Stage in this ESPO News). The first conference day will be concluded with a series of parallel workshops which will compare practical solutions to promote the port as a place to work, to live and to experience.

The second day will focus more in-depth on port labour and port-related employment which are key factors to port competitiveness. They also play an important role in the successful completion of port reform processes. This session will start off with a state-of-the-art comparative review by Prof. Theo Notteboom of ITMMA on port employment impacts and port labour arrangements in European ports, highlighting key factors of success. These conceptual and empirical findings will be discussed with a panel of experts representing policy-makers, port authorities, service providers and trade unions.

Lloyd’s List Brussels’ correspondent Justin Stares will then moderate a thought-provoking political debate with Members of the European Parliament on the future direction of European port and transport policies. Siim Kallas, the European Commissioner-designate for Transport has been invited to give the closing keynote speech of this intensive two-day event, the seventh in the series of annual conferences organised by ESPO so far.

Preceding the actual conference, a special interest seminar is scheduled on the development of Russian and Baltic Ports, which is organised in co-operation with the Russian State Port Agency “Rosmorport” and the Baltic Ports Organisation.

Participants to the ESPO conference can also register for a post-conference tour on 29 May to the beautiful neighbouring port-city of Tallinn.

Programme and practical information are available from the conference website where online registrations can be made.

Representatives of European port authorities met in Le Havre on 2 February for the third meeting of the “People around Ports” project. Following an initiative of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, the project was established in 2009 and aims to share innovative solutions and best practices to develop co-operative synergies with cities, to improve the quality and accessibility of port areas and to promote a positive image of ports with the general public. The project also looks into ways of attracting young people to pursue a career in ports and thus to remedy shortage of qualified labour in ports.

The project involves the port authorities of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Cartagena, Constantza, Gijón, Hamburg, Helsinki, Klaipéda, Le Havre, Livorno, Marseilles, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Valencia and is supported by ESPO. The project will result in a series of best practices that will be gathered in an ESPO Code of Practice on Societal Integration of Ports. The Le Havre meeting discussed a first draft of this Code which will be further elaborated over the coming months and presented at the ESPO Conference in Helsinki on 27-28 May.

On 1 January Spain took on the six-month rotating Presidency of the European Union. Time to look at Spain’s programme and priorities in the field of transport:

- The Presidency in office emphasizes that the principles of sustainability, innovation and security should be fostered as driving forces of the transport policy. They aim at adjusting these principles both to the new 2010-2020 White Paper on Transport and the new methodology the Commission will propose to review the direction of the Trans -European Transport Networks. The external scope of this policy will also be reinforced, and collaboration with southern Mediterranean countries will be promoted.

- On the TEN-T, a ministerial meeting will be held in June in Zaragoza. The Spanish recall the Council’s demand to the Commission for a revision of the TEN-T guidelines by end 2010 and a proposal on methodology and criteria to be proposed very soon.

- The Spanish want to promote and extend the most sustainable means of transport, such as the railway, through appropriate infrastructure and services and improved intermodality and logistics. At the same time the Spanish Presidency wants to give special attention to the liberalisation and operation of rail freight.

- In turn, sea transport will be encouraged by reviewing the criteria applicable to the development of motorways of the sea and facilitating the development of short-distance sea transport.

- Transit in urban and metropolitan areas will be promoted as well.

- Spain wants to deploy the use of intelligent transport systems. The EGNOS system and the Galileo Programme will be promoted, dealing with the management structure change, the programme’s medium term review and the Regulated Pubic Service.

- Progress will also be made in modifying the European Maritime Safety Agency.

Presenting the transport priorities at the meeting of the TRAN committee in the Parliament on 27 January , Spanish transport minister José Blanco Lopez considered that a large consensus was needed about “gigaliners” and that a number of problems needed to be resolved before a decision could be taken to change the existing approach. He further confirmed that Spain would only deal with the revision of the eurovignette directive at a technical level, since there are still problems concerning the calculation of the external costs. On the question of passenger rights, Mr Lopez said he would work towards a strong agreement on two regulations currently in negotiation with Parliament and Member States, for road and maritime travel.

The first Atlantic Motorways of the Sea project which links the French port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire with the Spanish port of Gijón, has been selected to receive more than €4 million in the framework of the Marco Polo EU funding programme 2009 under the category of Motorways of the Sea actions. This category aims to fund projects that enhance knowledge in the freight logistics sector and foster advanced methods and procedures of cooperation in the freight market.

The Commission also approved a complementary state aid for the so-called FRES MOS project amounting to €30 million where France and Spain will each grant €15 million. According to the Commission the complementary aid granted by France and Spain is compatible with the internal market, since it contributes to the EU's strategy for developing a network of Motorways of the Sea, while its impact on competition and intra Union trade is limited. Following EU rules on State aid, the overall financing of the project will be limited to 35 % of the eligible costs within the first four years of its operation.

The FRES MOS Project, which will be exploited by GLD Atlantique, a consortium between Grimaldi and Louis Dreyfus, aims at shifting trucks from the Atlantic coast roads between France and Spain. The link will consist of three weekly services using a ro-pax vessel.

The EU Marco Polo II programme selects each year a range of projects that aim to shift freight from the road onto more environmentally-friendly transport modes, such as railway, inland waterway and maritime transport. In the framework of the 2009 Marco Polo call, the Commission selected twenty-two projects with overall funding of €66.3 million. With these projects, the Commission expects to shift a total of 16.8 billion tonne/kilometres of freight away from the roads.

Besides the €4 million EU grant given to the FRES MOS project (see article above) and the “modal shift actions”, the Commission selected two interesting “common learning actions”. Approximately one million euro will be given to the “Hinterport” project. This project aims at promoting hinterland transport cooperative solutions for integrated operation of sea-inland ports by establishing an interactive network of intermodality related stakeholders. In that way the partners want to capture available success stories from across Europe transport business cases, validate their applicability and viability and promote them through training/ dissemination activities using innovative methods and ICT tools. The port of Antwerp is one of the partners.

Another smaller but interesting project is the “Intermodality E-80” project. This project seeks to develop and manage an institutional forum for co-operation, discussion and knowledge sharing to disseminate methods and proceedings which enhance intermodal transport and logistics solutions on the international E-80 corridor. Operators, agents and institutions related to international freight traffic will take part in this forum. This Spanish-Portuguese project involves amongst others the port of Leixoes.

A complete overview of the twenty-two projects can be found here.

The new IMO sulphur content regulations for marine fuel make a distinction between SECAs (Sulphur Emission Control Areas) - these are areas that are being particularly sensitive to acid deposition - and other EU areas. For the areas that are not designated as SECAs the limits amount for 4.5% maximum at the moment and shall decrease to 3.5% from July onwards. As from 2020 the sulphur limits shall drop further to 0.5%, if feasible, otherwise from 2025. The regulations are a lot stricter for the areas designated as SECAs (English Channel, North Sea and Baltic Sea). The limits amount to maximum 1.5% today, 1.0% from July 2010 and only 0.1% from 2015 onwards. The new regulations are acknowledged to distort the level playing field in Europe and are therefore causing quite a concern within the European port and maritime sector.

The impact of the new IMO marine fuel regulations on transport in the Baltic Sea was the topic of the seminar organized by the Baltic Ports Association (BPO) in Copenhagen, 19 January. The seminar was organized to allow the main market representatives to exchange views and opinions on the implications. The attendees of the seminar discussed the influence of the new regulations on the environment, their cost implications on maritime shipping and the impact on the competitiveness of the Baltic region in comparison to other EU regions. The future situation on the maritime transport market was also under discussion.

The participants agreed on the need for shipping to take its share in the reduction of the emissions of harmful air pollutants such as sulphur. Nevertheless, they felt that the level playing field needs to be maintained and that attention should be paid to the impact on the cost of maritime transport and its potential unwanted effect of a modal back-shift from sea to road.

Overall, it seems that there is growing support within the European port and maritime industry towards seeking an alternative solution to the current IMO regulations that would ensure both the level playing field and significant environmental improvement. Such an alternative could be the overall establishment of a 0.5% limit of sulphur content on marine fuel. ESPO is looking closely to such a possibility by consulting with its members and with other European maritime transport stakeholders.

During its last meeting (25-26 January 2010), the TRAN Committee adopted an opinion from Mrs Dominique Vlasto (photo, PPE, France) on ENVI Committee's own-initiative report on the Commission White Paper on adapting to Climate Change. The TRAN Committee regrets the lack of attention paid to the transport sector by the White Paper and stresses the importance of the former in this area. The opinion emphasizes the need for solid information on options, costs and advantages for the transport sector in adapting to climate change. It is argued that the Commission should also provide for specific actions for mountainous regions as well as coastal and maritime ones. Suggested amendments underline the importance of the integration of transport systems, research, the "polluter pays" concept as well as the protection of vulnerable areas and infrastructure. The opinion further highlights the importance of including all transport modes when reflecting on adapting to climate change as well as the economic effect of adaptation. The European Commission hopes that the opinion will ensure the transport sector is fully considered in ENVI's own-initiative report.

Since it has been launched on 23-25 Nov 2008 in Los Angeles, the IAPH World Ports Climate Initiative (WPCI) has engaged in a world-wide effort to fight climate change by initiating various programmes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.

Under this initiative, there are six work groups that each address a specific topic, and two of them have recently come up with tangible results of their discussion and study.

The Carbon Footprinting Work Group led by the Port of Los Angeles has released a Guidance Document that serves as a reference for ports looking to develop or improve their GHG emissions inventories. More details can be found here.

The On-shore Power Supply (OPS) Work Group led by the Port of Gothenburg has released a guidance Document on OPS. More details can be found here.

Also posted online is the updated IAPH Tool Box for Port Clean Air Programs, which now includes additional tools focusing on greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation! To see the IAPH Tool Box, click here.

On 27 January, MEP Dirk Sterckx (photo, ALDE, Belgium) presented to the Parliament Transport Committee a draft report which includes 27 amendments to the Commission's proposal on a Draft Directive on Reporting Formalities for Ships. Amendments aim primarily to clarify the Commission’s proposal in a number of issues such as what is to be considered electronic exchange of data, the need of access control to protect commercial interests and the need for an integrated approach covering transport, customs and public heath and safety.

MEPs praised the work done by Rapporteur Sterckx, in particular as regards his consultation with experts from the industry in what is a rather technical dossier. ESPO contributed by meeting with the Rapporteur and the Shadows to provide the Transport Committee with the views and opinions of port authorities.

In its intervention, the Commission also expressed its support to most of the Rapporteur’s amendments, in particular the need of harmonization of formalities besides their simplification, the possibility to extend to inland waterways transport the scope of the Directive and the control to access data. The Commission echoed the Rapporteur’s message that there is no reason for any further delay for the use of the electronic transmission of data beyond the proposed date, since both SafeSeaNet and e-customs should be fully operative by 2013. The Commission will try to facilitate an agreement between Council and Parliament in the coming weeks. The difficulties with the Council will likely concentrate on the use of English as a common language to facilitate communication in maritime transport, the pilotage exemption certificates and the deadline for electronic transmission of data.

ESPO will continue to follow the progress on the draft directive. Next step is the tabling of amendments on the Sterckx’s report with deadline 22 February. Adoption of the report by the Transport Committee is expected in March.

End December DG Competition published a report on the Terminal Handling Charges (THCs), the ancillary charges which shipowners charge to shippers, looking in particular at the consequences of the repeal of the liner conference block exemption on THCs at both EU and non-EU ports on EU trade lanes. The block exemption allowed liner conferences, which are associations of ship owners operating on the same route, to set common freight rates, to take joint decisions on the limitation of supply and to coordinate timetables.

The report is meant to be a before-and-after study. It compares the THCs that were applied prior to the liner conference block exemption with those applicable after the repeal. The study furthermore assesses the changes in the level of the charges both by carrier and by trade.

According to the study conclusions, the repeal of the block exemption for conferences caused a major change in the pricing strategy of terminal handling costs by the shipping lines, both those formerly within the conference as well as the non-conference lines. THCs would now be set by individual players rather than collectively as was the case during the conference era. The report also concludes that the Terminal Handling Charges in Europe increased virtually across the board, with only a few minor exceptions. Furthermore, these ancillary charges would now be structured on a country basis, not on a port basis.

The full report can be downloaded from DG Competition’s website.

The European Tugowners Association (ETA) and the European Maritime Pilots' Association (EMPA) have recently joined forces to discuss "Best practices on safety in harbour towage and pilotage". During last year, ETA and EMPA representatives discussed the operational problems that both pilots and tugboat operators increasingly experience when handling the ever-growing ship types in European ports. The aim of the debate was to establish a common position on best practice for both pilotage and towage services. The shared problems were quickly established. The remedies however cannot be solved as easily.
Therefore it was decided to put together a position paper in which those problems that give rise to safety issues, not only with regard to pilots and tug crews but also the ships themselves and their crews, could be brought to the attention of a wider audience.

The double objective of this exercise is first to raise the awareness of all parties involved (crews, tugboat masters, pilots) in order to enhance the safety and efficiency of the tugboat operations. Secondly, ETA and EMPA want to offer feedback to help remedy some of the shortcomings or limitations of existing ships requiring tugboat assistance and to extend the knowledge gained into future ship design and construction. To that end, both organizations have sent their position paper to their members and to ship owners and ship operators, naval architects, classification societies, shipyards, equipment suppliers and maritime academies to stimulate a debate with the objective of eliminating or at the very least minimizing the identified safety concerns.

On 24-25 February 2010 the 5th International Ports and the Environment Conference and exhibition GreenPort 2010 will take place in the Swedish capital. Delegates representing the port sector in Europe and worldwide will be gathering in Stockholm to discuss key port environmental issues such as climate change, port authority’s green initiatives, biodiversity and Natura 2000, port-city relationship, port technology and renewable energy. One of the highlights of the programme will be the announcement of the outcomes of the ESPO / EcoPorts Port Environmental Review 2009. The outcomes of the review will form the basis of updating the ESPO Environmental Code of Practice and will provide the framework for adapting the EcoPorts tools and for undertaking new research, development and application initiatives.

The programme of the conference and all necessary practical information is provided on the Green Port website. 

The book ‘Ports in Proximity: competition and coordination among adjacent seaports’ provides an overview of key contemporary research in the field through a broad range of international case studies. The concepts of strategic management, supply chain management, port and transport economics and economic and transport geography are applied throughout the book to offer an in-depth understanding of the processes underlying spatial and functional dynamics in port systems. The opportunities for cooperation between competing adjacent ports is examined while the possibilities for further joint research are identified, setting an agenda for further study.

The book is edited by Theo Notteboom, ITMMA, César Ducruet, Paris-I Sorbonne University and Peter de Langen, Eindhoven University of Technology (Ashgate, ISBN: 978-0-7546-7688-1). For further information on how to order the book please visit the ‘book releases’ section on the ITMMA’s homepage.

Quarterly statistics on European port traffics will from now on be available on the ESPO website. The data are collected through the already existing ESPO Rapid Data Exchange System (RES), a voluntary system of data exchange between ports which has been working already for more than 14 years on a confidential basis between participating ports. Quarterly statistics will from now on be made public on the ESPO website.

The ESPO Rapid Data Exchange System is coordinated by a department of the “Ministère de l’Écologie, de l’Énergie, du Développement durable et de la Mer” of the French Government. Data collection is performed quarterly in electronic format through a standard table in Excel format which can be downloaded from the ESPO website. Statistics are then produced quarterly and will be readily available in the ESPO website as soon as 10 weeks after the end of each quarter. A special edition containing an in-depth analysis of the data will be provided once a year.

The ESPO Rapid data Exchange System collects quarterly data on the following traffics:
- Total tonnage (tons) (tonnage of goods carried, including packaging and including the tare weight of containers or ro-ro units)
- Total liquid bulk (tons)
- Total dry bulk (tons)
- Total general cargo (tons)
- Containers (tons; TEU)

Today, around 50 ports already participate in the ESPO RES. If more ports join the system in the coming months the current lack of updated statistics on ports traffics could be filled. Ports interested in joining the RES, can contact the ESPO secretariat (Martina Fontanet).

ESPO has developed a new port map on its website. Each blue flag stand for one of the EU ports member of ESPO. By clicking on the flags one can see the contact details and website of the relevant port. By ticking a name of a port in the search engine one can directly see where it is.