Council Resolution of 14 February 2000 on the promotion of short sea shipping
Date: 2000-02-14
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU Member State, carriage of goods, cooperation policy, maritime transport

29.2.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 56/3

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 communi-
cation 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
long term
sea
approach for the development of short sea shipping and
makes recommendations for a number of actions to be
undertaken by all parties concerned.

shipping, outlines

comprehensive

a

(3) RECONFIRMS the objectives and recommendations

for
action contained in the Council Resolution of 11 March
sea shipping (1) and in the Council
1996 on short
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 sustain-
ability of
the
strengthens
Community and contributes to an increased efficieny of
the Community’s transport system.

the cohesion of

transport,

(5) EMPHASISES as a priority objective of

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.

the Council

(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

is primaritly up to the
it
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.

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

(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
sea
focusing in particular on the removal of
shipping,
obstacles
its development as an environmentally
for
friendly transport mode(cid:146) and INVITES the Member States
and the Commission to take measures in several areas,
which equally lead to promoting short sea shipping.

(cid:145)promoting short

the need of

(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 development of
short sea shipping included in that Communication.

the recommendations for

(10) IS OF THE VIEW that

it

is essential

to find practical
solutions to existing bottlenecks which hamper the devel-
opment 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
infrastructures (i.e.
developing services and technical
land-based facilities, hinterland connections,
loading
units etc.);

(b) promoting door-to-door package solutions with inte-
grated 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
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;

performance

indicators,

through

key

C 56/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

29.2.2000

its

than

current

average

(c) creating and testing new technical and market oppor-
tunities for short sea shipping, also over distances
distance,
shorter
by
in particular
promoting research and development,
information tech-
in respect of
nologies and ships specially adapted for short sea
shpping;
is recommended to study
possibilties for short term financial support for new
projects and for the further development of existing
projects in this field;

land-based facilities,

in addition,

it

(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 infra-
structure charging.

(11)

the Member

transport users,

including the industries,
INVITES the parties concerned,
the
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.

States

(12) INVITES the Commission to continue and intensify its
in

the promotion of

sea shipping,

short

work for
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
documentation in
administrative
the
short
regards
in the
uniform application of
Community;

and
in particular as
IMO FAL

sea shipping,

formalities

forms

(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,
location, as well as public
such as their peripheral
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
transport
modes;

to facilitate a reasoned choice of

(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
the competitiveness of door-to-door
Focal Points,
transport
leg as
containing a
compared with other transport modes in relation to
transport price in a segmented market;

chains

short

sea

(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.