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European dockers have their say on a future EU Port Policy

17 July 2007

Following its committed rejection of the Commission’s “packages” on access to the port services market, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) submitted today its contribution to the consultation round on a future Port Policy for the European Union. The response voices European dockers’ concerns over a number of issues regarding:

• Policy Process. Stating the relevance of port labour to the success of the sector, European dockers refuse to be labeled as “bottlenecks”. An integrated set of measures that take due account of national and regional port systems’ specificities is required, the ETF warns.
  
  
• Policy Context. The ETF surfaces stakeholders’ contradictions emerging around globalisation and liberalisation, market competition and transport sustainability, and states that port differences across Europe and the involvement Sectoral Social Partners at local and national level should pivot around an EU Policy for the port sector.
  
  In addition, the ETF welcomes the considerable progress achieved towards the establishment of a Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for Ports at EU level, which should be the most appropriate venue for discussion and policy development in areas such as training and professional qualifications, health and safety, and other employment-related issues.
  
  
• Community Action. Market access should be clarified through the establishment of clear guidelines to provide competition ‘for’ the market with more transparency, the ETF explains. The market investor and subsidiarity principles, along with the consideration of regional specificities, should be top elements of the future policy.
  
  At the same time, sustainable development and a strategy to improve health and safety at workplace should be mainstreamed across all policy areas.
   
  The ETF votes for the simplification of the administrative procedures and the establishment of a “Common European Maritime Space”.
  
  The public image of ports should also be promoted by Community action.
  
  
• Short Sea Shipping (SSS) and Local Action. As debates over SSS and Motorways of the Sea (MoS) closely involve labour-related issues, the ETF highlights that employment arrangements are specific to each port, as they reflect agreements reached by the Social Partners through a democratic process of dialogue and collective bargaining. Any type of labour organisation unilaterally imposed through Community action will be rejected by European dockers. 
  

Finally, the ETF would like to see the conclusions of the consultation round channeled into the outcome of the wider debate launched by the Green Paper on the future Maritime Policy for the European Union.

Please, find enclosed the Contribution of the ETF to the European Commission’s consultation on a future Port Policy for the Union.

ENDS

For more information please contact:

Philippe ALFONSO, ETF Political Secretary for Maritime Transport, Dockers and Fisheries
Phone: (+) 32 2 285 45.84   E-mail: p.alfonso@etf-europe.org

European Transport Workers' Federation
Rue du Midi 165
B-1000 Bruxelles
Tel: +32 (2) 285 4660
Fax: +32 (2) 280 0817
Email: etf@etf-europe.org
Web: www.etf-europe.org

Related documents:

Contribution of the ETF to the European Commission's Consultation on a Future Port Policy for the Union (289kb PDF)

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