Maritime transport: Commission clarifies EU rules on cabotage
23 Apr 2014 12:37 PM
The European Commission has given new guidance
on the interpretation of the regulation to provide cabotage within a Member
State1, thus providing an internal
market for the provision of maritime transport services. With the new
guidance competent authorities will have more legal certainty when awarding
public service contracts and imposing public service obligations. Shipowners
will also benefit from more legal clarity, allowing them to better organise
their business in Europe.
European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas,
responsible for Mobility and Transport, said: "The
internal market for maritime transport services is important to the performance
of the European economy and for the quality of life and prosperity of maritime
regions. Member States' authorities need clear rules on how
to ensure adequate links to islands and peripheral regions that
are particularly dependent on maritime transport. We have
listened very carefully to where clarification was needed. These updated
interpretative guidelines provide this clarity and will enhance legal certainty
for all maritime cabotage actors in the EU."
The
new guidance updates the previous Commission's guidance2 in order to align it to recent EU
law and case-law of the Court of Justice. In future, there will be more
flexibility in defining the duration of public service contracts. The new
guidance is presented in the interest of transparency and legal certainty to
help explain the EU rules to all actors that wish to make use of
it.
Amongst other things the interpretative communication
adopted provides updated guidance on:
-
the
scope of the freedom to provide services in the maritime cabotage
sector
-
who
enjoys that freedom and which services the Regulation covers,
-
the
award procedure for public service contracts,
-
the
duration of public service contracts,
-
the
manning rules on vessels providing maritime cabotage,
-
the
application of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of
the Council on public passenger transport services by rail and by road and
repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No. 1191/69 and 1107/703 to maritime cabotage
services,
-
transitional arrangements for Croatia.
Member States and stakeholders were fully involved and
consulted in the process of preparation of the report and the new
interpretative guidelines.
The
Commission has also presented its fifth report on the freedom to provide
services to maritime transport within Member States (maritime cabotage)4.
Almost all cabotage services in the EU have been
liberalised from 1 January 1999. The Greek market, which was among
the last to be partly protected, has been opened up to competition since
1 November 2002. Croatia is the only Member State that still can
apply the temporary derogation from certain provisions of the Regulation, until
31 December 2014.
Regarding market developments, the Commission has
reported that until 2007, the maritime cabotage market in the EU recorded a
continuous increase in volumes of goods and numbers of passengers transported
in several countries. Since 2008 it has experienced a considerable decline, due
to the impact of the economic crisis.
Facts and figures
As
in previous years, the greatest market for cargo traffic is that of the United
Kingdom and Spain (each around 80 million tonnes a year), followed by that of
Italy (around 60 million tonnes). Liquid bulk continues to lead in terms of
cargo transported.
Regarding passengers, Greece has the greatest traffic
(60 million passengers a year), followed by Italy (40 million
passengers).
Finally, according to the available data the penetration
of the national markets by vessels flying non-national flags has slightly
increased in the cabotage of cargo in three Member States, while it remains
limited in the cabotage of passengers.
Contacts :
Helen
Kearns (+32 2 298 76 38)
Dale Kidd (+32
2 295 74 61)
For
the public: Europe Direct by
phone 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 or by email
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