EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Port, Transport

2012 has been a particularly important year for the European Union because studies of potential changes in European sea port policy are being prepared this year. Firstly, it should be considered that ESPO regularly publishes guidelines on a host of port policy issues, and member states were acquainted with green policy guidelines for ports. Among the topics discussed were best practice, the experience of various ports in environmental protection and labour protection issues. The green policy materials should be fully developed and published for widespread use very soon.

Another important milestone will come in 2015, when the regulations of the International Maritime Organisation and the European Union on reduced sulphur content in fuels used in the Baltic and Nordic Seas take effect. The European Commission is working on a Directive aimed at reducing fuel sulphur content, so we must now conduct a comprehensive analysis of what impact this will have on the operation of Baltic ports. Once the regulation is enforced, representatives of Baltic ports may face issues with cargo handling throughput and increased handling costs. One should also consider whether port treatment facilities will be ready to accept concentrated waste produced by air treatment equipment, to accept these airborne emissions, which may contain highly contaminated chemicals.

The ESPO Board meeting decided to direct the attention of European Union politicians to these issues in order to analyse every potential consequence.