An IDC delegation led by the General Coordinator, Julian Garcia, met with Georg Jarzembowski in Brussels on June 18 to hear about his conclusions as rapporteur to Parliament on DG-TREN’s proposals for a directive on market access to port services.
Dr. Jarzembowski is an important European Parliamentarian representing the European Peoples Party (Christian Democrats) in the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism. He was appointed the task of rapporteur at the committee meeting of 20 March.
His draft rapport contains some very basic changes in the general objectives of the proposed directive. For IDC and indeed all dockers in Europe, these changes might well be of fundamental importance.
The text of the draft can be found in all the community languages on the website of the Parliament at:
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/committees/rett/default_en.htm
(meetings 19.06.2001)
It makes very interesting reading – especially when compared with the Commission’s “Ports Package”.
The “Package”, while placing much importance on market access to cargo handling and little on fair competition between ports has failed in proving the existence of a real problem with market access to port services. It doesn’t reflect the original aims of Parliament and certainly is not in line with the demands made in the resolution on the Green Paper of 13 January 1999 on seaports and sea transport infrastructure. The Commission obviously is “shooting too high” and risks creating an unnecessary and bureaucratic framework with a system of rules hard to follow. Market access being a fundamental right according to the treaty, one would think that a case-by-case approach to allegations of violation would be perfectly adequate.
With this probably in mind, Jarzembowski has completely changed the thrust of the proposed directive in his draft rapport. He broadens the directive to cover the creation of the necessary conditions for fairer competition between ports, taking at the same time the emphasis away from competition within ports. Cargo handling in relation to market access is now absent in his proposal, which instead covers only the purely technical-nautical services – pilotage, towage and mooring.
The change in direction is made evident by the title of the new proposal: DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL ON CONDITIONS FOR FAIR COMPETITION AND TECHNICAL-NAUTICAL SERVICES IN PORTS.
Jarzembowski’s rapport can only be seen as scathingly critical of the Commission’s proposals and it leaves little room for compromises.
The draft still contains the same wording in §6.5, though this now no longer applies to cargo handling which has been completely removed from the areas designated for compulsory deregulation. There will of course still be the same problems with (and the same just criticism of) the wording of the text coming from unions who organise workers in the field of technical-nautical services - In all fairness though one must take note of the greater emphasis made on the need for professional qualifications in the new proposal and the provision that it will be the task of the Member State to regulate access of occupation etc.
Likewise, the draft still contains §11 with a revised, somewhat diffuse, wording on self-handling with reference being made to using its own staff and equipment. It is not made perfectly clear as to whether this still refers to all port services, including cargo handling, or only to technical-nautical services.
The Commissions original proposals as set out by DG-TREN serve as a tool for shippers and shipping companies who would like to have European ports for their own playing fields. In the same way these proposals are clearly anti-union, designed to do away with the labour-pools and open ports for unorganised work forces.
In light of this and if, as would seem likely, we are faced with the two opposing sets of proposals on a “take it or leave it” basis, then there can be no doubt as to which side port workers and their trade unions will support.
