March 06, 2020 / By mobanmarket
New guidance is meant to increase legal certainty when awarding public service contracts for sea shipping within member states.Commission clarifies rules on maritime contracts
The European Commission published today (22 April) new guidance for how public authorities in the European Union should award public service contracts to businesses providing maritime shipping services within member states.
The guidelines come in response to complaints by member states, who said that existing rules were making it difficult to support islands and peripheral regions that are dependent on maritime transport. The guidelines allow more flexibility in defining the duration of public service contracts. They also outline in more detail the award procedure for these contracts.
The Commission also presented its fifth report on the freedom to provide services to maritime transport within a country, known as maritime cabotage. 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 can still apply the temporary derogation from certain provisions of the regulation, until 31 December 2014. The guidelines include these transitional arrangements.
The report notes 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.
Last week the Commission published a similar report for road cabotage – but without new guidelines. The report identified a number of restrictions that are hindering development. On any given day, almost a quarter of all trucks on Europe’s roads are empty, either on their way home or between loads.
Based on that report’s findings, Siim Kallas, European commissioner for transport, called for the rules to be revised. “The current rules are wasteful for European companies, have an impact on all road users and are bad for the environment,” he said. “We need clear regulations for the industry and at the same time we need good working conditions for the drivers. I hope the next Commission will continue down this road.”
The report recommended that member states step up enforcement and that the Commission comes forward with clarification of the rules.
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