14 Inland waterway transport
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(35310)
13721/13
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COM(13) 623
(b)
(35311)
13716/13
COM(13) 621
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Commission Communication: Towards quality inland waterway transport: NAIADES II
Draft Regulation amending Council Regulation (EC) No. 718/1999 on a Community-fleet capacity policy to promote inland waterway transport
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| Legal base | (a) ¯
(b) Article 91(1) TFEU; co-decision; QMV
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| Documents originated | 10 September 2013
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| Deposited in Parliament | 18 September 2013
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| Department | Transport
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 3 October 2012
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| Discussion in Council | Not known
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
14.1 The Commission's first NAIADES programme, which
was adopted in 2006 and has now come to an end, was developed
to encourage modal shift of freight from road to inland waterways
in five areas for action:
· markets — action to help inland
waterways to expand beyond traditional markets such as bulk cargoes
to areas such as containers, waste and even vehicles;
· fleet — action to encourage investment
and innovation in vessels and technology;
· jobs and skills — action to address
skills shortages and encourage recruitment;
· image — action to promote the sector;
and
· infrastructure — action towards
improvement of the network.
14.2 Council Regulation (EC) No. 718/1999 on a Community
fleet capacity policy to promote inland waterway transport required
Member States with waterways interlinking with other Member States
and a total fleet tonnage of over 100,000 tonnes to contribute
to an Inland Waterway Fund (the 'Capital Reserve Fund'). This
fund was only to be used in cases of 'serious market disturbance'
in the inland waterway market and to ensure a more favourable
and safe environment and working conditions for those working
in the industry.
The documents
14.3 In introducing its Communication, document (a),
the Commission claims that the first NAIADES programme has had
a significant mobilising effect in the Member States and amongst
stakeholders. It adds however that the economic and environmental
prospects for inland navigation have continued to worsen and progress
in overcoming key infrastructure bottlenecks has been limited.
It says that in view of the economic and other difficulties that
the inland waterway sector in the EU is facing, it is publishing
a second NAIADES programme, which will follow on from the first
NAIADES action plan.
14.4 The Commission sets out in the main section
of the Communication a second action plan, for the period 2014-20,
essentially aimed at moving more freight transport onto EU waterways,
as well as reducing carbon emissions. For NAIADES II it proposes
continuity with the first programme, while aligning it with the
2011 Transport White Paper and the EU's long-term vision and targets
in transport. It would seek to create the conditions for inland
navigation to become a quality transport mode.
14.5 The main actions to be undertaken by the Commission
in the following main areas of intervention are:
· quality infrastructure, which includes
a set of planned actions with technical and financial assistance
to address infrastructure issues, such as bottlenecks and to improve
interconnection and integration with other modes of transport
with particular attention being paid to sea and inland ports —
for example, implementing 'multimodal corridor work plans' with
a range of stakeholders from river commissions to sea and inland
ports;
· quality through innovation, in which NAIADES
II calls upon the industry to take more ownership around research,
development and innovation initiatives with a set of specific
actions — for example, preparing a roadmap for research,
development and innovation in the inland waterway transport sector
with key stakeholders, such as ship operators and data services
providers;
· smooth functioning of the market —
whilst the inland waterway sector is fully liberalised, the Commission
believes that the lack of harmonisation in areas such as manning
of ships and working time needs to be addressed with a set of
actions, which include reviewing and continuing analysis of market
developments and assessing barriers for the further development
of inland ports;
· environmental quality through low emissions
— to progress the reduction of carbon emissions in the sector,
addressed in the accompanying Commission Staff Working Document
"Greening the fleet: reducing pollutant emissions in waterway
transport";
· skilled workforce and quality jobs, aimed
at removing barriers for access to the profession and for the
recognition of qualifications for those in the industry, by means
of a set of actions — for example, reviewing the framework
on the harmonisation and modernisation of professional qualifications
in the sector; and
· integration of inland navigation into
the multimodal logistics chain, which includes a set of actions
that will better integrate this transport mode into the multimodal
logistics chain — for example, the Commission will encourage
the sector to share best practice, with possible EU financial
support.
14.6 The Staff Working Document accompanying the
Communication compares the performance of inland waterway transport
regarding emissions to those of land-based modes of transport.
It also provides a comprehensive analysis of options and identifies
further steps for reducing emissions of air pollutants from the
inland water fleet.
14.7 Also accompanying the Commission's Communication
is the draft Regulation, document (b), which would, given that
the Inland Waterway Fund has not been used to date, amend Council
Regulation (EC) No. 718/1999 to allow the fund to be used more
widely than originally foreseen, to facilitate development of
the industry through measures such as vocational training for
crew, improvement of navigation skills and encouraging vessel
innovation as regards the environment.
14.8 The Communication is accompanied by a third
document, a draft Directive laying down technical requirements
for inland waterway vessels and repealing Directive 2006/87/EC,
which is the subject of a separate chapter in this Report.[66]
The Government's view
14.9 The former Minister of State, Department for
Transport (Mr Simon Burns), says that while the Government thinks
that the Commission's proposals meet subsidiarity requirements,
it recognises that, for reasons of both history of construction
of UK canals and the short lengths of UK waterways, the UK inland
waterway industry is very different from that of Europe and it
is important to maintain the option of derogating from EU technical
regulations that, while appropriate on a EU level, would not add
value to either safety or business on UK waters.
14.10 On the Commission Communication the Minister
says that:
· the Government welcomes it, since the
UK supports initiatives to take freight off roads and on to either
rail or water;
· the NAIADES II programme does not appear
to force Member States to do any more than encourage freight off
the roads and onto inland waterways where opportunities exist;
· NAIADES II is mainly designed for the
intensively used northern European waterways of Germany,
Netherlands, France and Belgium, such as the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse
and Seine;
· the Government anticipates that the programme
would have only minor implications for UK freight overall;
· this is because the amount of freight
transported on the UK's inland waterways is lower in relation
to Germany, Netherlands, France and Belgium, amounting to 44 million
tonnes in 2011, as compared with about 500 million tonnes annually
there;
· of that volume, only 8% is in non sea-going
vessels, to which much of the EU policy initiatives are directed
— non sea-going vessel tonnages fell from 5.4 million tonnes
in 1991 to 2.6 million tonnes in 2004 and have since grown back
to 3.5 million tonnes;
· commercial waterway activity is mainly
concentrated on the major estuaries (Mersey, Thames and Humber
etc.), the Manchester Ship Canal and the commercial waterways
that radiate from the Humber; and
· these constitute only a small proportion
of the overall inland waterway network in the UK, most of which
was built over a short period in the late 1700s and early 1800s
(the narrow canal network of the industrial revolution period)
which is now used for leisure activities.
14.11 The Minister, whilst saying that the Government
also welcomes the draft Regulation to make minor amendments to
Regulation (EC) No. 718/1999, notes that the Inland Waterway Fund
does not apply to the UK, since it is exempted by virtue of not
having waterways linked to those of other Member States and is,
therefore, is not required to contribute to the fund.
14.12 The Minister tells us that the Government broadly
welcomes the Commission Staff Working Document that accompanies
the Communication. But he comments that:
· the document does appear to be written
around an assumption that the air quality emissions performance
of the inland waterway fleet can best be improved by setting emission
standards that will effectively force the use of liquefied natural
gas for new engines in the future and by requiring existing engines
to be retrofitted with equipment to meet these standards;
· many parts of UK industry have not yet
made a decision on the technology solution they will adopt to
comply with the standards;
· inland water cargo vessels in the UK are
all low powered, so forcing retrospective improvements to emissions
on existing engines would be very costly with very little benefit
to the environment;
· both barges and engines tend to be very
long lived by the virtue of the nature of the work that they do,
so it would take a long time for these vessels to phase out of
the fleet under normal circumstances;
· the document does not seem to properly
address all of the implications of the assumption, either from
the point of view of the operators of vessels or in terms of its
possible impact upon engine supply;
· a rather over-simplified assumption, that
technological solutions developed for lorry engines can be easily
transferred to much larger engines working under very different
conditions, underpins much of the argument;
· there are studies currently being undertaken
in the UK to consider whether technology solutions can be applied
from one transport sector to another;
· early indications are that each sector
has its own characteristics and can learn from the experience
of others, but the solutions will be unique to that sector;
· although the UK inland waterway sector
is relatively small, the UK does have development and manufacturing
interests in the form of at least one producer of engines for
inland waterway vessels and of producers of exhaust after treatment
devices;
· the Government is committed to meeting
the UK's air quality obligations and supports the efforts of other
Member States in meeting theirs;
· it needs to ensure a proper balance is
struck between achieving the overall aim of the Commission Staff
Working Document and the aim of improving the air quality emissions
of inland waterway vessels and it is not clear that the analysis
in the current document is quite adequate to informing that process;
and
· whilst there is no obligation imposed
on Member States by the Staff Working Document itself, the Commission
indicates that it will be undertaking further work to refine the
analysis for greening inland waterway vessels and we will consider
how to positively engage with them on this.
Conclusion
14.13 Given the negligible impact of these documents
for the UK we clear them from scrutiny. But we observe that, if
the Commission turns the ideas about emission standards in the
Staff Working Document into a legislative proposal, we will be
scrutinising it closely, given the caveats the Government expresses
now.
66 (35318) 13717/13 + ADDs 1-2: on which we shall
be reporting shortly. Back
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