On the 19th of November, FEPORT attended a policy breakfast on the upcoming EU Ports Strategy that was organised by IHK. Nord and hosted by the Permanent Representation of Lower Saxony.
The event included keynote speeches by TRAN Committee member MEP Gieseke, Mr. Torsten Klimke on behalf of the European Commission, Mr. Daniel Hosseus and Mr. Johannes Berg on behalf of BLG Logistics and HHLA respectively, two companies with a strong base in Northern Germany and throughout Europe and which both play a key role in FEPORT committees and Board of Directors.
Key questions that featured throughout the speeches and following discussions were the following:
- How do we secure the competitiveness of ports in global supply chains?
- What are the investments needs to support digitalisation, sustainability, infrastructure development and the energy transition?
- How do we strengthen ports as part of a wider European security architecture?
IHK Nord e.v. used the opportunity provided by the event to present its position paper on the EU Ports Strategy. This paper particularly calls for an investment push through CEF and a reform of the EU State aid framework to avoid that important investments and projects on infrastructure and superstructure development are blocked. Also Mr. Hosseus, who in addition to his work as executive Vice President Global Public Affairs at BLG Logistics Group chairs FEPORT port policy committee, agreed to the need to reform EU State aid rules.
Mr. Klimke, Head of Unit D3 (Ports and Inland Navigation) at DG MOVE, also alluded to the discussions on GBER reform in his presentation and referred to topics such as FDI, grid connections and the need to enhance cybersecurity in ports.
MEP Gieseke referred in his speech to the contribution of seaports to economic growth and the energy transition and underlined the importance of Omnibus initiatives that simplify legislation and reporting requirements for companies.
FEPORT thanks IHK Nord e.V. for the invitation and the Representation of Lower Saxony for hosting the event.
