WRITTEN QUESTION E-3295/01

by Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(28 November 2001)

Subject: Deregulation of seaports

The Commission has submitted a communication on improving the quality of services provided in seaports. Firms are to compete to load and unload ships, maintain docks and warehouses, and provide other dockside services. The trade unions are deeply concerned that deregulation will lead to

wage dumping. Since firms will be able to select their employees without restriction, it is possible that current agreements with the employers' organisation, Sveriges hamnar, will not be respected and that employees who accept lower wages than the present dock workers will be recruited. There is in fact fierce competition in the industry already, but it is between ports.

The deregulation proposal is based on the assumption that current stevedoring is inefficient. Many in the industry believe that to be wrong. The port of Gothenburg, for instance, competes with Hamburg and other major ports. However, that level of competition will be constrained if 10 to 15 firms are to share stevedoring between them, which will be the case in a port the size of Gothenburg if deregulation becomes a reality.

If an exception is made for cargo handling, then piloting, towing and passenger services will be left to open up to competition. According to the National Maritime Administration, piloting cannot be deregulated, towing is already open to competition and there is no monopoly on passenger services. Passenger services are in any case not extensive, amounting to no more than dockside boarding and disembarkation.

Does the Commission not agree that competition does take place between various ports within the Union at the present time and should that competition not be sufficient to ensure that stevedoring and other port services continue to operate efficiently?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(22 January 2002)

The purpose of the proposal submitted by the Commission is to establish a regulatory framework for operating ports in line with the principles of economic efficiency, transparency and non-discrimination.

The Commission appreciates, understands and shares the particular concern which the Honourable Member attaches to the social aspects of the proposal.

Generally, Article 15 proposes that Member States must take the necessary measures to ensure application of their social legislation. This therefore makes it clear that the proposal is not intended to weaken the existing social framework in the Member States; ports are and will remain subject to the social legislation applicable in their country.

Article 6 proposes empowering the competent authority to lay down clear criteria governing service providers' activities in each port. In line with the subsidiarity principle, these criteria can vary from one port to another, depending on local conditions. The criteria must be transparent, non-discriminatory, objective, relevant and proportional and, in particular, may relate to the provider's professional qualifications. In other words, the competent authority may decide the qualification requirements for workers at a given port and, therefore, bar anyone who fails to meet them from working there.

The fact that providers of port services would have the right to employ personnel of their own choice (Article 6(5)) creates no new rule on port workers' qualifications, since providers would be able to recruit only workers with the qualifications required by the port authority.