The European Commission issued its second stakeholder survey on ports policy. The survey follows a high-level conference held last September, during which the preliminary results of an overall business survey were presented. That survey found that 70 to 80% of the respondents did not see any major challenges for port services in Europe. The new survey seeks views more particularly on the objectives to be pursued at EU level, possible policy measures to achieve these objectives and the related impacts of the proposed policy measures. The questionnaire is again run by PwC and Panteia (former NEA).
The list of potential policy measures broadly focuses on market access and transparency. It contains measures on market access to port services, public service obligations in ports, national administrative conditions on market entry, transparency of financial relations between public authorities and port authorities, the setting of port service charges, the sustainable functioning of the port labour market, quality requirements for port service providers, improvement of user satisfaction, measurement and monitoring of port performance, training and qualification of workers, health and safety of workers and transfer of staff in the case of transfer of undertakings.
“It is good that the Commission provides this opportunity to assess the policy options at hand, since some of the listed measures would clearly be very controversial”, said ESPO Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven, “For us, it is important that Europe’s policy for ports remains proportional to the high satisfaction rate that the first survey demonstrated. It should also support the developer role of port authorities, rather than constrain it. We will therefore provide a coordinated response from ESPO, highlighting both the positive and the negative impacts that the proposed measures would have. We will also remind the Commission of measures it hasn’t explicitly included in the questionnaire, such as State aid guidelines.”
The survey runs until 16 December and is part of the overall impact assessment of the ports policy review. It is expected that a new Ports Policy Communication will emerge in spring next year, which may be accompanied by specific measures. The nature and extent of these measures is however not determined yet.
Source: ESPO