EU port liberalization could be watered down

EU port liberalization could be watered down    The European parliament may remove one of the most controversial aspects of the second European directive on the liberalization the port sector to get it adopted.
   Providers of port services and dockworkers “are on one side and the users are on the other side,” said Georg Jarzembowski, coordinator of the European Parliament’s transport and tourism committee at the opening of hearings on the proposed bill in Brussels Tuesday. The divisive bill would introduce more competition within ports and impose limits on the duration of concessions and contracts.
   Dockworker union representatives at the hearings particularly opposed the directive’s “self-handling” proposal allowing new entrants such as shipping lines to carry out cargo-handling operations themselves.
   “The commission is basically saying that people can hire their own staff,” said Manfred Rosenberg, union spokesman for the European Transport Workers’ Federation at the hearing. The union wants to protect jobs and labor agreements.
   “My tendency is to take self-handling out” of the proposed directive “to avoid trouble,” Jarzembowski said after hearing numerous criticisms of the bill by unions, members of parliament and port service providers. Terminal operators, as well as operators of port tugs and pilotage services, reiterated their opposition to the directive.
   The first attempt to adopt a directive on liberalizing the port sector sponsored by former European commissioner Loyola de Palacio was rejected by the European Parliament in 2003.
   At the hearings, dockworkers’ unions accused EU policymakers of not having consulted the industry.
   Terminal operators also criticized the bill.
   “In our view, in the strong competitive environment which we experience everyday within and between ports, there is no need for a European market access directive, and definitely not under its present form,” said Cecilia Eckelmann-Battistello, president of the Federation of European Private Port Operators.
   She said European terminal handling charges are lower than in Asia or the United States, and have declined over the past 10 years. “Handling costs in Europe are half of those in the U.S.,” she said.
   But the European Shippers’ Council, the European forwarder association Clecat and the shipping line group European Community Shipowners’ Association all expressed support for the proposed directive.
   Even by removing the controversial self-handling provision, the second attempt to adopt the port liberalization directive may not succeed, according to industry sources.