On September 11th, FEPORT attended the Sustainable Ports Subgroup meeting, a working group under the European Port Forum. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Torsten Klimke, head of the Port Unit at DG MOVE and Ms. Lamia Kerdjoudj, FEPORT Secretary General.
The meeting featured important discussions on pressing topics such as the grid package, permitting ETS Maritime and the deployment of onshore power supply.
Alongside DG MOVE, representatives of DG CLIMA attended the meeting to present the ETS proposal, particularly focussing on the maritime aspects such as the funding that will be allocated for the deployment of sustainable maritime alternative propulsion (SMAP) and the measures that are proposed to combat transhipment relocation at the expense of ports in the EU. FEPORT applauded the measure the Commission already is proposing and expressed its thanks for recognising that evasion risks are real but also asked about the cargo-based measure and why it only applies to the inbound leg of the voyage.
We also expressed our appreciation of the Commission´s work on electrification as part of the Grid package which includes measures to ease permitting. FEPORT looks forward to further participate in relevant discussions regarding electrification and OPS deployment, such as the ongoing workstreams on price transparency for OPS as announced in the Electrification Action Plan and European Ports Strategy.
The discussions on OPS deployment and wider port electrification were very interesting as they incorporated practical real-world examples of stakeholders´ implementation practices such as from the Port of Dunkirk and PSA Antwerp, while leaving room for the academic perspective which was presented by Professor Prousalidis from the Technical University of Athens. PSA, for example, provided concrete information on how they are implementing electrification in a brownfield reconversion project where the upgrades are put in place while maintaining ongoing terminal operations.
At the closing of the meeting, FEPORT suggested that the Subgroup could work on the preparation of a practical guidance with respect to permitting procedures of relevance to port projects. More clarity is needed as permitting procedures are currently covered by a myriad of several pieces of EU, national and sectoral legislation.
