The main topics of the Port-Net Opening Conference were EU-Transport policy, the present proposal of the EU for a directive on market access of port services and urban revitalisation.
The participants of the conference agreed completely to the main objective of the EU transport policy to shift traffic from road to more environmentally friendly modes like rail, shipping and inland navigation. Comparing these alternatives short sea shipping is the only mode of transport able to keep pace with the fast growth of road transport. But, in order to shift even more traffic on the sea the complexity of different regulations in certain EU countries as well as inefficiencies in ports and hinterland connections should be reduced.
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Although the Commission is undertaking many efforts to tackle these problems like "One-Stop Commercial Shops", "Marco Polo", "priority axes" and "Motorways of the sea", the ambitious goals can be reached only if the European ports as a bottleneck of the transport chains improve their efficiency. Therefore the EU should address these problems mainly by introducing legislation allowing for fair competition between ports and, reforming the administrative procedures in ports, and making |
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investments in port infrastructure and port connections to land modes.
Therefore, Port-Net recommends analysing in more detail in which ports and hinterlands what kind of modes function better and worse. It will be necessary to identify best practice ports and to adopt these methods to improve overall efficiency of the intermodal chain. The Port-Net participants agreed also that public must guarantee a stable and reliable environment in order to make private sunk-cost investments valuable.
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The second very much discussed topic of the opening conference was the Proposal for a directive on market access for port services. All participants of the conference were wondering about the contradictions between the targets of the directive of liberalisation, competition and the promotion of European players and the expected outcome of more bureaucracy, and advantages for global players.
Therefore the clear Port-Nets recommendation concerning the directive is to refuse this proposal. Much more important are state aid guidelines to guarantee financial transparency and fair competition between ports. |
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