TEXTS ADOPTED
1. Short sea shipping
A5-0139/2000
European Parliament resolution on the Commission communication to the Council, the European
Parliament, the Economic and SocialCommittee andthe Committee of Regions ‘The Development
of Short Sea Shipping in Europe: A Dynamic Alternative in a Sustainable Transport Chain Mdash
Second Two-yearly Progress Report’ (COM(1999) 317 Mdash C5-0206/1999 Mdash 1999/2164(COS))
The European Parliament,
bdash having regard to the Commission communication (COM(1999) 317 bdash C5-0206/1999),
bdash having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,
bdash having regard to the report of the Committee on Regional Policy,Transport and Tourism and the
opinion of the Committee on Industry,External Trade,Research and Energy (A5-0139/2000),
A. whereas there is a serious discrepancy between the old-fashioned image of short sea shipping and the
realistic transport alternative now offered by this mode of transport,
B. whereas short sea shipping is capable of facilitating the re-establishment of a balance between the
various modes of transport and of responding to the growing development of just-in-time logistics,
C. whereas e-commerce will mean a significant increase in the sending of parcels and medium-sized
packages,and whereas it is therefore necessary to open up,by means of new types of loading unit
(e.g. ‘containers within containers’),intermodal transport in general and short sea shipping in particu-
lar to the shipment of items of this kind in bundles,
D. whereas the development of a multimodal transport system covering the whole of the European
Union and adjacent territories is vital to ensure efficient,cost-effective and sustainable movement of
goods and hence the competitiveness of European manufacturing and distribution in an increasingly
competitive global market place,
E. whereas because short sea including sea/river shipping,means the movement of cargo by sea between
European ports or between those ports and ports situated in non-European countries with a coastlineon the enclosed seas bordering Europe,short sea shipping is an integral part of the European trans-
port system,
F. whereas the development of short sea shipping can serve as a means of improving the integration of
logistic systems and finding solutions to Europe’s overall transport problems,
G. whereas there is a lack of relevant statistics in tonne/km,including place of origin/final destination and
commodity groups,which makes it difficult to asses cargo movements in general and in particular the
potential market for short sea shipping,
H. whereas increasing the amount and proportion of goods transported over short sea shipping routes
may lead to considerable improvement,in the efficiency of Europe’s transport system,
I. whereas the introduction of new,faster,cleaner and innovative vessels dedicated exclusively to the
transport of goods by sea and river could increase the appeal of sea transport over road transport,24.4.2001 EN C 121/489 Official Journal of the European Communities
Friday 7 July 2000
J. whereas,given the overall economic and environmental considerations in favour of this mode of
transport,there are currently insufficient short sea services offered either by the private or public
sector,
K. whereas short sea shipping service providers need to develop best practices in conjunction with all
other industry parties in the same way as other industry sectors as this allows all involved to examine
and measure their performances,with a view to developing key performance indicators,and should
lead to improved overall operational capacity and performance throughout the supply chain,
L. whereas there is a need for improvement of various documentation and standardised administrative
procedures preferably by electronic means,
M. whereas action by all participants,including ports,in the logistics chain is urgently needed in order to
promote greater utilisation of short sea shipping,
N. whereas,if short sea shipping is to expand and fulfil its economic and commercial roles,national
governments,together with regional and local authorities,will have to provide the necessary political,economic and financial support,in association with the industries involved,
O. whereas in the USA a series of actions have been proposed to achieve improved coordination,effi-
ciency,and profile for the Maritime Transport System (MTS) and in particular the role of short sea
shipping as part of a multimodal transport system,
P. whereas a successful short sea shipping sector requires full transparency regarding investments in and
by ports and other operators in relation to state aid,
Q. whereas in order to promote short sea activities,support at national,regional and local as well as
European level is needed,
R. stressing that,in view of its environment-friendly and cost-effective potential,short sea shipping is
capable of becoming an important link in Europe’s intermodal transport system chain,provided a
series of public and private measures are taken at EU,national,regional and local level in order to
develop its promising future fully,
S. having regard to the importance of short sea shipping to the social and economic development of
outlying maritime regions and,consequently,to Community cohesion,
T. whereas it welcomes the Commission’s Second Progress Report on Short Sea Shipping and its presen-
tation of the position of short sea shipping as an integrated transport mode in the logistical systems
and takes note of the recommendations of the Commission in the Second Progress Report,
U. noting the conclusions of the Transport Council held on 8 December 1999 in respect of the policies
required to develop short sea shipping and the priority to be afforded to short sea shipping by
national governments,
V. whereas appropriate measures should be taken by both Council and Commission to increase the con-
tribution of short sea shipping to the European transport system,particularly in view of the traffic
congestion,expensive infrastructure,and the high environmental costs associated with other transport
modes,
1. Commends the analysis undertaken by the Commission in its communication and welcomes the fact
that,during the two years under consideration,the short sea shipping sector has made favourable progress,
which should be further encouraged,along the lines of the network of round tables organised since 1997
within the framework of the Forum of Maritime Industries and the strengthening of the European dimen-
sion in assessing and developing potential in all EU Member States involved in cabotage;C 121/490 EN 24.4.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Friday 7 July 2000
2. Proposes the further development of best practices which,where appropriate,lead to key perfor-
mance indicators (KPIs) for short sea shipping,as the development of best practices and key performance
indicators can make a very important contribution towards enhancing the performance of short sea ship-
ping; once established,KPIs can be used to compare performance between operators and other modes of
transport and will help to identify infrastructure bottlenecks and highlight where improvements can bemade;
3. Calls on the Commission to consider more closely the question of the links between short sea ship-
ping and river transport or other means of transport such as railways or infrastructures for access by land,
so as to ensure that both the industrial and commercial sectors enjoy the infrastructures necessary to
sustain their economic activities properly;
4. Stresses that the links between maritime and river transport should be given greater weight in order
to ensure uniformity between transport systems in the north and south of the Union and thus an
improved economic balance between European operators,since links between river and maritime transport
are more extensively developed in the northern Member States than in the south;
5. Therefore,welcomes the Commission’s initiative to identify bottlenecks and best practices in the
establishment of short sea shipping services and calls for broad circulation of the results of the investiga-
tion;
6. Insists that,although the safety record of shipping is generally excellent when compared with other
transport modes,the safety and environmental protection aspects of its integration into multimodal trans-
port systems must be paramount,both at sea and at ports;
7. Calls on the Commission to take appropriate measures in the near future to eliminate the environ-
mental shortcomings of short sea shipping (cf. paragraph 7.1 of the two-yearly progress report),i.e. emis-sions of NO
xand SO2; such measures could include:
(a) a directive on the permitted emission values of new ship’s engines;
(b) a directive on minimum quality standards for bunker oil used in old(er) ships’ engines;
8. Urges the Commission to pursue an intermodal strategy involving complementarity between various
forms of transport and to opt for maritime transport wherever it is competitive,for reasons of environ-mental sustainability and safety and in order to ease congestion on the roads;
9. Acknowledges the fact that the private sector plays an important role in short sea activities; states
however that there are certain aspects of market conditions which require the intervention of publicauthorities at regional,national and European level; believes it is particularly important for the competentauthority to:
(i) ensure that there is no distortion of competition;
(ii) review and,if necessary,abolish the compulsory use of certain port services;(iii) tackle any abuse of dominant positions in port services;(iv) simplify and streamline administrative formalities and documents;
(v) optimise infrastructure for links with the hinterland;
10. Points out that there is a lack of relevant statistics on transports of goods by mode bdash including
multimodal transport bdash between (sub) regions of origin/destination and by other commodity groups,ser-
iously hampering commercial and public policy initiatives which makes comparison between short
sea shipping and other modes of transport more difficult; even reliable figures on general tonne/km trans-
port by mode are currently lacking; asks for relevant,accurate and comparable studies in this area;24.4.2001 EN C 121/491 Official Journal of the European Communities
Friday 7 July 2000
states however that the work to improve statistical information should go on in parallel with the more
urgent task of developing strategies between the industries involved and policy makers at regional,national
and European level;
11. Calls on the Commission to draw up a list of ports which are particularly suitable for short sea
shipping,an important criterion to be applied being ports’ intermodal transport links;
12. Believes that short sea shipping is an environment friendly and safe alternative to road transport
and therefore that an increase in the proportion of goods transported by short sea shipping is essential;
calls on national governments to introduce effective measures to increase the proportion of goods carried
by short sea shipping,including investment aid to launch short sea shipping projects demonstrating the
contribution which this transport mode can make to the overall efficiency of multimodal transport systems
and the removal of all kinds of barriers; calls on the Commission also to promote short sea activities
by providing some launching aid from the already existing European funds and to organise schemes to
assist combined transport in such a way as to enable them to be applied without difficulties to short sea
shipping;
13. Calls for joint investment programmes to be drawn up in the Mediterranean area,in the Adriatic
and in the ports of the Canary Islands,the Azores and Madeira,taking account in particular of:
bdash incentives for short-sea shipping lines;
bdash simplification of customs and embarkation procedures;
14. Stresses that necessary fiscal measures and incentives to support the development of new short sea
shipping services of harbours should be based on the principle of complete transparency; believes it is
particularly important for existing short sea shipping services not to be disadvantaged compared with the
newly developed services;
15. Calls on the European Investment Bank and the Commission to ensure that port infrastructure
investment projects are adequately represented in the establishment of TENs;
16. Stresses the need for greater efficiency in port operations and for the length of time which vessels
spend in port to be reduced by investing in the construction of suitable facilities for cabotage (pre-embar-
kation terminals and adequately sized wharves) and by encouraging the introduction of new technologiesincorporated into port design and installations;
17. Draws attention to the low general awareness and poor image problem of the short sea shipping
sector,despite the active use of new information and communications technologies by the sector,and
recommends urgent action by the private and public sectors to address this problem; to improve the
image problem it is crucial to capture the imagination and interest of all involved,including the generalpublic,in order to create a climate in which short sea shipping is recognised as a green and cost-effective
way to transport goods in the context of the complete logistics chain;
18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage the development of modern,time-
saving transhipment capacity and techniques which are cost-effective and which ensure that road,rail and
maritime transport are connected effectively,in particular for short sea shipping;
19. Stresses the need for technological research in the field of maritime industries to be encouraged
with a view to increasing the flexibility and the attractiveness of short sea shipping;
20. Stresses the need for encouragement to be given to the exchange of electronic data between all
involved in short sea shipping by means of systems geared to cooperation via computer applications and
to electronic commerce;
21. Urges manufacturing and distribution companies to examine the contribution which short sea ship-
ping can make to the cost-effectiveness of their logistics chains for inward and outward transportation of
goods within Europe and between Europe and nearby non-European countries;C 121/492 EN 24.4.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Friday 7 July 2000
22. Draws attention to the need for a ‘one-stop-shop’ approach to the offer of transport logistics ser-
vices to end users which would cover multimodal provision,thus redressing current fragmentation inservice provision; in this respect asks for launching aid for demonstration projects and states the impor-tance of encouraging all involved to work together;
23. Welcomes the efforts of a number of organisations to apply modern ICT techniques to the logistics
issues involved in improving overall transport systems,including short sea shipping,and calls for the
Commission’s support where appropriate;
24. Urges the public sector to promote the use of short sea shipping in practical terms,i.e. through the
establishment of round tables on short sea shipping and/or promotion bureaux and,where appropriate,
regional centres; in this respect,obstacles and their impact must be clearly defined and addressed,primarily
on a local/national basis;
25. Welcomes the trends that are becoming evident in the market towards private sector integration
and provision by the same company of road,rail and seaborne transport services and ownership of port
and other land-based terminals; recommends that the Commission studies the evolution of the market;
26. Calls on the Member States and the competent authorities to include short sea shipping in sylla-
buses for those undergoing vocational training or further training in the transport industry,the carrying
trade or the forwarding industry;
27. Welcomes and wishes to be associated with the Commission’s initiative for a definitive study in
coordination with the national short sea focal points of the pricing of short sea shipping services to pro-
vide an accurate picture of the relative price of short sea shipping in different situations and its impact on
overall costs in a multimodal context;
28. Calls for administrative requirements to be harmonised and applied effectively by the national port
authorities,for more precise application of European customs legislation and for closer cooperation
between all parties involved (customs and transport services);
29. Calls on the Council,the Commission and the Member States,in connection with the standardisa-
tion of loading units by the competent international committees for the establishment of standards,to seek
in future to bring about standardisation of containers used in deep-sea transport and inland waterway
transport;
30. Asks the public authorities at local,regional,national and European level to encourage ports to
provide separate and specialist short sea shipping handling activities;
31. Calls on the competent authorities of the Member States and ports to exempt short sea shipping
from charges for waste disposal at port reception facilities if it can be demonstrated that they are able to
dispose of the waste at another port and to lay down relevant rules in such a way that routes which are in
the process of being established and which are not yet used on an entirely regular basis are still able to
benefit;
32. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to submit a uniform European framework so that,
once the experience of the captain has been verified,the exemption of short sea shipping from pilot
services may be requested,and calls on the competent authorities of the Member States and ports to
implement this swiftly in accordance with the respective prevailing conditions;
33. Welcomes the fact that Member States have appointed National Focal Points on short sea shipping;
encourages the cooperation which has been established between the different parties involved,i.e. the
Commission services,the National Focal Points and the industry (Maritime Industries Forum); asks for
enhanced coordination by the National Focal Points and the European Commission and wishes to be
kept informed of the initiatives being developed;24.4.2001 EN C 121/493 Official Journal of the European Communities
Friday 7 July 2000
34. Stresses the need for encouragement to be given to a sea corridor interconnection strategy which
would further the overall economic development of outlying maritime regions and island regions; in this
regard,asks the Commission to include in its proposals on short sea shipping the transport by sea between
ports situated in the outermost regions of the Union and the neighbouring countries in their respective
regions;
35. Stresses that short sea shipping is a way of achieving closer coherence within the EU and points to
potential gains in terms of employment;
36. Emphasises the need for reciprocity in relations for short sea shipping and sea/river shipping in the
EU and Russia as a means of creating new market opportunities for developing short sea shipping; regrets
in this respect the fact that the Russian waterways system is still inaccessible to ships flying an EU flag;
calls on the Member States and the Commission to negotiate a prompt opening up of the Russian water-
ways system as provided for in the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Russia;
37. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council,the Commission,the European
Investment Bank and the governments of the Member States.
2. Environmental crime *
A5-0178/2000
Initiative of the Kingdom of Denmark with a view to the adoption of a Council Framework Deci-
sion on combating serious environmental crime (5343/2000 Mdash C5-0078/2000 Mdash 2000/0801(CNS))
The initiative was amended as follows:
TEXT PROPOSED
BY THE KINGDAM OF DENMARK (1)AMENDMENTS
BY PARLIAMENT
(Amendment 1)
Recitals 1 and 2
(1) The Council is concerned at the increasing scale and frequent
cross-border effects of environmental crime ;(1) The Council is concerned at the increase in environ-
mental crime and its consequences, which are increasinglybeing felt beyond the borders of the States where suchcrimes are committed ;
(2)Serious environmental crime poses a threat to the environ-
ment and serious environmental offences therefore should be met
by a tough response;(2)Such crime poses a threat to the environment and there-
fore should be met by a tough response;
(Amendment 2)
Recital 3
(3) Serious environmental crime is a problem jointlyfaced by
Member States, which should therefore take concerted action to
protect the environment under criminal law ;(3) Serious environmental crime is a problem that all the
Member States have to tackle and they should therefore
take concerted action to protect the environment by means
of criminal law provisions and severe sanctions whichact as effective deterrents and entail prison sentences andfines which make environmental damage non-economic ;
(1) OJ C 39,11.2.2000,p. 4.C 121/494 EN 24.4.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Friday 7 July 2000