Listening response
EU strategy for short sea shipping
Danish Ports' comments to the Ministry of Transport and Building on the Commission's draft EU strategy for short sea shipping called "Detailed Implementation Plan for Motorways of the Sea"(download the report). EU Coordinator for the Blue Motorways of the Sea (MoS) Brian Simpson has previously presented the report to the European Parliament's Transport Committee on June 15, 2016 and to industry/stakeholders at the TEN-T Days in Rotterdam on June 23, 2016. See more info here http://www.onthemosway.eu/ and here http://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/maritime/motorways_sea/index_en.htm The Commission has asked to receive Member States' preliminary comments on the report before it is officially sent to Ministers. The consultation process with the countries will then begin, which will result in the final work program for the MoS within the next 12 months. The material is very comprehensive and yet recognizable, as it is mostly a summary that unfortunately does not contribute anything new or concrete strategic goals for Short Sea Shipping (SSS). SSS routes should provide the fastest and most reliable service between destinations. The report has a good mapping of flows in core corridors on pages 23-24 but should go a step further with an estimate of the transfer potential based on the mapped patterns in transportation and trade. What can actually be achieved/moved from road to sea? The EU should be able to analyze this. Not via the map on page 57, which is downright useless. In addition, there is a need to locate and promote best practices. In conjunction, the EU could recommend successful short sea shipping models and point to obvious transport routes/corridors where capacity should be better utilized. However, this should not only be on the core network but on the main network, as the lion's share of Danish short sea shipping takes place in the ports of the Jutland corridor, which is simply omitted in the Commission's plan. There is a lack of focus on developing new SSS solutions that are better suited to moving containerized cargo, which normally travels by truck and tends to include high-value and time-sensitive goods. There is a lack of concrete initiatives that actively and decisively focus on modal shifts from land to sea, utilize the capacity of SSS, target project cargo and other heavy goods transport to short sea shipping rather than dedicated road transport. Rapid growth in heavy road transportation and related congestion, accidents and pollution are the main economic, social and environmental problems that are not being addressed. According to Lloyds List, just over 30% of the world's ro-ro fleet capacity operates in Northern Europe, consisting of 196 vessels with an average age of 18 years. This indicates proportionality for a joint strategy and action plan, as well as a maturity in the vessel population in relation to investing in new dedicated ro-ro vessels. Compared to other maritime transport, SSS can deliver more efficient calls in time, loading and unloading, flexibility in routes, which can be supported by a new generation of ro-ro vessels that are more cargo and energy efficient. As the EU already works with data on maritime goods and ports in the Portopia project, a benchmark catalog could be developed that shows the development in, for example, the number of SSS nautical miles sailed, number of established SSS routes, number of dedicated SSS ships, self-unloaders, operators in the market, use of container types (20/40/45), % of intra-EU transport and trade, etc. Documented development can act as an incentive for further joint initiatives or to change course if there is no development. Projects on "customs fast corridors" on page 63 sound interesting and could perhaps be used concretely in further work to get closer to an internal market for short sea shipping, but nothing is formulated about further work on this or what has come out of the experiments. In relation to the environmental pillar, the ECA issue is not touched upon. Setting special environmental requirements in parts of the EU will necessarily affect the competitiveness of shipping compared to land transport. Conversely, innovative research and development of environmental technology and investment in environmental facilities and infrastructure are praised. This could be formulated into an EU-wide strategy so that the same requirements are set for the entire EU, which will create a better market for innovative environmental solutions. Then a concrete goal can be formulated for SSS to be the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation. But this requires proportionality. For further information, please contact business policy consultant Bjarne Løf Henriksen