The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) expressed concern about the Commission’s plans for the future EU budget and urged it to further strengthen European transport infrastructure.
The Commission is preparing the ground for a complete reform of the EU budget, whereby a large part of the transport funding is brought under a single funding plan per Member State, ESPO states.
The Commission’s plan to bring transport and port investments under national single plans runs counter to the need for common assessment and more European planning as put forward in the Draghi report.
ESPO underlines the fact that dedicated and strengthened EU transport infrastructure instrument, with a dedicated/earmarked and sufficient envelope for ports, is crucial for Europe’s port sector, with 327 European ports being an integral part of Europe’s infrastructure policy.
The importance, role and responsibilities of Europe’s ports are increasing. On top of being the gateways to trade and logistic hubs, maritime ports are playing a crucial role in the supply of energy and are thus both partner in the energy transition and ensuring Europe’s energy security.
… ESPO stressed in an official announcement.
ESPO concludes its statement by saying that this multifaceted role of ports comes with increasing investment needs, now amounting to 80 billion EUR for the next ten years, according to ESPO’s latest investment study.
”’Many of these investments create high added value for society, yet come with low, slow or risky returns on investments and therefore jeopardise a successful roll-out of the projects.”, ESPO added.
In that regard, to be fully effective, the future EU transport infrastructure instrument should:
– Receive a much stronger dedicated port budget;
– Make sure that a dedicated and sufficient part of the budget will support those port projects that are crucial from a societal point of view and that can help ports to deliver on a green, digital, secure and competitive Europe;
– Ensure that the cross-border criterium in the strict sense is not a sine qua non condition to receive funding;
– Be more transparent in its project selection and on the role of the Member States in this process;
– Structure calls by modes, not by overarching topics in order to improve clarity and avoid overlapping scopes;
– And reduce the complexity and administrative burden in the application processes.
