Port services: market access and financing of maritime ports

The Commission has drawn up a working document (linked to the "port package") on the financing of and charges at European sea ports. In the follow-up to the Green Paper relating to ports and maritime infrastructures (see COS/1997/2299), the Commission suggested collecting information on this issue, with the help of the Member States. The initiative took the form of an inventory of the financing of and charges at Community ports. The results of this survey show that: - public financing plays and important role in the Community sea ports sector; - public investment in the ports has a considerable impact on competitivity of Community ports; - the transparency of the flow of public financing in the Community sea ports is essential to ensure - in the context of the common transport policy - equality between the actors within the ports and between different ports which is currently insufficient; - the charging and recovery of costs which vary considerably from one port to another; - the port service sector is always characterised by procedures which limit access to new services.�