On 1 April, MEP’s Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE) and Corien Wortmann-Kool (PPEDE) submitted a joint written parliamentary question to the Commission underlining the urgent need for Community guidelines on the provision of state aid to ports. The question draws attention to the existing framework in Europe as regards the funding of maritime ports which “serves both to distort free competition between ports and to create legal uncertainty”. The MEPs also recall that “a variety of financing arrangements for maritime port development have been approved, even though no overall policy approach has yet been laid down” and underline that “at a time when public investment is being encouraged as a means of maintaining overall investment levels, there is an urgent need for a clearer, formally agreed interpretation of the Treaty provisions governing the provision of state aid to ports”. Furthermore, the question contains a call for the creation of an entirely level playing field which it states, “is the only way to halt the trend towards purely profit-driven port development and guarantee the quality and efficiency of the services provided in ports”.
The question specifically urges the Commission to say precisely when the expected guidelines will be drawn up and published. It also asks the Commission to clarify whether it shares the MEPs' view that a genuinely successful Community port policy is inconceivable unless the situation regarding the provision of state aid to ports is clarified quickly. The parliamentary question can be found here.
No formal answer has been published yet. However, unofficially, the Commission would have indicated that a draft of the guidelines could be ready by the end of 2009. The Commission would explain the delay on the publication on the one hand by the complexity of the exercise due to the heterogeneity of European ports and on the other hand, by the need to take into account different objectives in the guidelines such as port development, Member States spatial planning and the correct implementation of the Treaty rules. In the meantime, as regards the monitoring of the Treaty rules on State aid, the Commission seems to be pursuing cases more actively, as show two recent enquiries regarding the French port reform and the concession in the port of Piraeus.
On 8 April, the Commission launched an investigation to examine if the measures and implementing rules, under the French port reform are compatible with the Community rules on state aid. In particular, the procedure for handing over public equipment could favour certain operators by not guaranteeing that the public assets in question are sold at the market price. The tax arrangements applicable to transferred equipment could also involve state aid.
The concession contract details of the Piraeus container terminal (SEMPO) to the Chinese terminal operator COSCO are also being examined by the Commission after possible unfair tax conditions have been reported. In response to two parliamentary questions raising the issue, Commissioner Tajani reminded that state aid distorting the internal market is prohibited by the Treaty and that Member States have to notify to the Commission any project of public aid before implementing it. In this context, he underlined that the existence of tax measures favouring COSCO was not mentioned in the project of public aid for infrastructure and equipment foreseen for the port of Piraeus notified by Greece in February and March 2008. The parliamentary questions and Commissioner Tajani’s answer can be found here and here.
Source: Transportweekly
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