Source: European Parliament
European ports, as critical gateways for international trade and important hubs of activity, are essential for the success of EU industry and economy as a whole.
This has notably been recognised in the Commission’s priorities through the planning of a new strategy that will highlight the role that European ports and maritime industry will play in the future EU economy.
All sectors, including maritime transport, need to contribute to the EU climate neutrality objective. While there may be many different economic and operational factors influencing shipping companies’ routes decisions, the Commission takes the possible risks of evasive behaviour very seriously.
A specific preventive measure against such risks had already been agreed during co-decision: it consists in disregarding, for the purposes of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), stops by containerships at certain neighbouring container transhipment ports that meet specific criteria. Tanger Med and East Port Said have been identified as such ports.
Furthermore, the EU ETS Directive[1] includes a reporting and review clause that obliges the Commission to monitor and to report every two years on the implementation of the ETS extension to maritime transport, notably with the objective to detect evasive behaviours at an early stage and if appropriate, to propose measures to ensure the effective implementation of the directive.
The first report is expected in the coming weeks and the Commission will continue monitoring the situation very closely.
- [1] Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Union and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC (OJ L 275 25.10.2003, p. 32).