EU LAW AND POLICY ON MARITIME PORTS

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EU LAW AND POLICY ON MARITIME PORTS

• EUROPEAN TRANSPORT LAW
• Lecture 3b

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EU PORTS

• 1,200 commercial ports in EU
• Direct and in-direct source of more than half a
  million jobs
• EU ports have a role to play in the
  trans-European transport network (TEN-T) by
• increasing the efficiency of the European
  transport system
• encouraging growth of intra-EU trade and trade
  with third countries
• overcoming congestion of the main land-corridors
• enhancing maritime links with island and
  peripheral regions
• strengthening the multimodal aspect of the TEN-T
• Communication on Ports Policy from 2007

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ISSUES TO BE REGULATED

• Access to the port services market
  (liberalisation, 1997 Green Paper on Sea Ports
  and Maritime Infrastructure)
•  Transparency of port financing (state aid
  included)
• 2006 Commission proposal for a Port Service
  Directive (PSD) rejected by the European
  Parliament (for the second time)
• European Commission to bring forward new package
  of measures for ports in 2013
• Mandatory legislation or a soft law?

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ACCESS TO THE MARKET

• Essential facilities doctrine imposes on owners
  of essential facilities a duty to deal with
  competitors in order to allow them to use these
  facilities under the same conditions (Oscar
  Bronner GmbH Co. KG v. Mediaprint Zeitungs- und
  Zeitschriftenverlag GmbH Co.KG, Case C-7/97,
  1998 E.C.R. I-7791, 1999 4 C.M.L.R. 112.)

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ACCESS TO THE MARKET cont.

• Sea Containers v. Stena Link (Holyhead II,
  Commission Decision 94/19/EC, 1994 O.J. (L 015)
  8)
• StenaLink was the owner and operator of the port
  of Holyhead. One of its subsidiaries operated
  ferry services from the same port. Sea Containers
  intended to start ferry services on the same
  route as Stena Links subsidiary but with a
  faster ship. Stena Link delayed negotiations,
  but, after a complaint was lodged with the
  Commission, it concluded an agreement with Sea
  Containers. The Commission nevertheless stated
  that the port was an essential facility, since
  any other alternative, i.e. another port, would
  substantially increase the length of sail, and
  building a new port would not be realistic. The
  Commission said that an undertaking which
  occupies a dominant position in the provision of
  an essential facility and itself uses that
  facility () and which refuses other companies
  access to that facility without objective
  justification or grants access to competitors
  only in terms less favourable that those which it
  gives its own services commits an abuse of
  dominant position (102 TFEU).

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PORTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

• A number of directives directly or indirectly
  applicable to port operation, planning and
  development, including
• The Bathing Water Directive
• The Dangerous Substances Directive
• The Wild Bird Directive
• The Health and Safety in the Workplace Directive
• The Shellfish Directive
• The Habitats Directive
• The Environmental Impact Assessment Directive
• The Waste Reception Facilities Directive
• The Water Framework Directive
• The Environmental Liability Directive

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PORT SECURITY LEGAL FRAMEWORK

• Regulation (EC) No 725/2004 of the European
  Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on
  enhancing ship and port facility security
• Directive 2005/65/EC of the European Parliament
  and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on
  enhancing port security
• EU-USA bilateral agreements (Container Security
  Initiative)

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THE FUTURE OF PORT SERVICESsome further questions

• Costs of the measures vs. benefit
• Whether ports will be able to operate at all
  under all these measures?