COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 14 February 2000

on the promotion of short sea shipping

(2000/C 56/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

(1) WELCOMES the second Commission communication on the development of short sea shipping in Europe and notes that it incorporates the second two-yearly report on progress in the development of short sea shipping requested by the Council in its Conslusions of 18 June 1997.

(2) NOTES with satisfaction that the Commission communication persents a thorough review of the development of the short sea shipping, identifies the main problem areas where further action is needed in order to promote short sea shipping, outlines a comprehensive long term approach for the development of short sea shipping and makes recommendations for a number of actions to be undertaken by all parties concerned.

(3) RECONFIRMS the objectives and recommendations for action contained in the Council Resolution of 11 March 1996 on short sea shipping(1) and in the Council Conslusions of 18 June 1997 and NOTES that actions have already been undertaken and initiated on the basis of these recommendations.

(4) RECALLS that short sea shipping is an environmentally friendly transport mode which contributes to the sustainability of transport, strengthens the cohesion of the Community and contributes to an increased efficieny of the Community's transport system.

(5) EMPHASISES as a priority objective of the Council the development of short sea shipping into a dynamic part and a viable option in the intermodal door-to-door transport chain between all regions of the Community.

(6) CONSIDERS that the promotion of short sea shipping in all its aspects, such as container and bulk transport, is an on-going process, which needs to be accelerated with short, medium and long term actions, while respecting the Community rules, amongst others those governing maritime cabotage.

(7) RECONFIRMS its view that it is primaritly up to the industries themselves to develop short sea shipping and that the Council, the Member States and the Commission have an essential role to play, in particular concerning the framework conditions.

(8) RECALLS that, in its report to the European Council of Helsinki on a strategy on the integration of environment and sustainable development into the transport policy, the Council addresses the need of "promoting short sea shipping, focusing in particular on the removal of obstacles for its development as an environmentally friendly transport mode" and INVITES the Member States and the Commission to take measures in several areas, which equally lead to promoting short sea shipping.

(9) CONSIDERS, that the comprehensive approach presented in the Commission Communication forms a good and constructive basis for the future work on reaching the abovementioned priority objective and WELCOMES in general the recommendations for the development of short sea shipping included in that Communication.

(10) IS OF THE VIEW that it is essential to find practical solutions to existing bottlenecks which hamper the development of short sea shipping and, at this stage of the development process, to focus on certain fields of action and, in particular, on:

(a) improving the efficiency of the maritime loading and unloading points in the logistics chain (i.e. intermodal connection points such as ports, terminals etc.) by streamlining the administrative procedures and by developing services and technical infrastructures (i.e. land-based facilities, hinterland connections, loading units etc.);

(b) promoting door-to-door package solutions with integrated facilities, such as one-stop shops, through the cooperation between the different transport modes and the different players in the logistic management of the supply chain, through the establishment of best practices, through the examination, with a view to their introduction, of measures such as benchmarking and key performance indicators, through the collection and dissemination of data and information on short sea shipping, amongst others using Eurostat, and through the active use of the cooperation framework provided by the round-tables and the focal points of the Member States and other national initiatives to promote short sea shipping such as national short sea shipping information offices;

(c) creating and testing new technical and market opportunities for short sea shipping, also over distances shorter than its current average distance, by promoting research and development, in particular in respect of land-based facilities, information technologies and ships specially adapted for short sea shpping; in addition, it is recommended to study possibilties for short term financial support for new projects and for the further development of existing projects in this field;

(d) creating a level playing field for short sea shipping by achieving further progress in fair and efficient pricing for infrastructure, taking into account the work of the Commission's High Level Group on transport infrastructure charging.

(11) INVITES the parties concerned, including the industries, the transport users, the Member States and the Commission to work actively towards fulfilling the priority objectives and the tasks identified under point 10, and to cooperate towards finding concrete solutions to obstacles standing in the way of the development of short sea shipping.

(12) INVITES the Commission to continue and intensify its work for the promotion of short sea shipping, in particular by:

(a) initiating urgently an exercise of compiling, with input from the focal points and other interested parties, a detailed list of bottlenecks and other specific problems and their potential solutions, such as best practices;

(b) examining and consulting the parties concerned as soon as possible with a view to presenting proposals and/or encouraging the introduction of codes of conduct to simplify and streamline transport-related administrative formalities and documentation in short sea shipping, in particular as regards the uniform application of IMO FAL forms in the Community;

(c) presenting its inventory of the public financial support to ports and proposals on the access to the market for port services, while taking into account the diversity of circumstances prevailing in the Community ports, such as their peripheral location, as well as public service obligations and the need to maintain a high level of safety;

(d) examining the possibility of earmaring more existing Community financial resources to the promotion of short sea shipping, of finding further possibilities for such funding, and of creating, in accordance with the rules of the Treaty on State aid and competition, a framework enabling the participation of national resources in initiating new short sea projects;

(e) developing tools to measure emissions from door-to-door transport chains containing a short sea leg in comparison with transprot in one single mode, in order to facilitate a reasoned choice of transport modes;

(f) following short sea shipping market developments and collecting and disseminating factual information on short sea shipping and its potential;

(g) studying, in coordination with Short Sea Shipping Focal Points, the competitiveness of door-to-door transport chains containing a short sea leg as compared with other transport modes in relation to transport price in a segmented market;

(h) taking the needs of short sea shipping constantly into consideration in the application and planning of Community actions and in regional cooperation with the third countries concerned.

(13) INVITES the Commission to transmit to the Council its next progress report in 2001 and to extend this report to passenger transport in addition to cargo transport.

(1) OJ C 99, 2.4.1996, p. 1.