Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-000221/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez (PPE), Borja Giménez Larraz (PPE)
On 13 January 2025, the Danish shipping company Maersk announced that its MECL service, which connects the Middle East and India with the United States, will stop calling at one of the main ports in southern Europe – the port of Algeciras in Spain – and will instead call at the Moroccan port of Tanger Med. Similarly, in February 2024 the German freight shipping company Hapag-Lloyd decided to suspend calls at the port of Valencia to relocate to the other side of the Mediterranean.
These relocations are two blatant cases of carbon leakage, as the shipping companies will be exempted from EU ETS charges which, since January 2024, apply a surcharge on shipping freight.
I would therefore like to ask the Commission:
- 1.Given that competitiveness is one of the pillars of the new Commission, what measures will it adopt to ensure that European ports such as Algeciras and Valencia remain attractive and relevant for the main international trade routes?
- 2.What measures will it take to stem this carbon leakage to other ports and maintain the competitiveness of the European Union?
Submitted: 20.1.2025