Lamia Kerdjoudj-Belkaid
Brussels, March 30th, 2017 – Following the High Level Ministerial Stakeholder Conference organized in Malta on 28th March 2017 by the Maltese Presidency, EU Transport Ministers have adopted a declaration “Valletta Ministerial Declaration” expressing the common vision of Member States about the priorities for the EU maritime transport policy until 2020.
FEPORT welcomes the inclusive approach of the Transport Ministers who have reaffirmed their support to a policy enhancing the competitiveness of maritime industries, including ports, while ensuring that those interdependent sectors have the means to remain a world class maritime cluster.
All industries embracing the era of digitalization deserve support to overcome obstacles in relation to data sharing, cross border cooperation and EU wide recognition of e-transport documents.
EU funding should also be accessible to all maritime stakeholders, including port operators, who are engaged in greening their businesses and the decrease of emissions resulting from their activities.
““Valletta Ministerial Declaration” includes the main terms of reference of what should be our main priority areas in the coming years and refers to crucial objectives such as the necessity to support the long term competitiveness of European industries towards a growing non EU competition” says Ms. Lamia Kerdjoudj-Belkaid, Secretary General of FEPORT.
“Competition is fierce and “glocal”[1] in the case of port stakeholders, and the only way to remain competitive is to have good port infrastructure and an efficient connectivity into the hinterland to offer the best logistics services in the world. We hope that the European Commission who is currently finalizing the last version of the GBER will adopt a text that will bring real legal certainty and facilitate the development of EU’s transport infrastructure. It is essential to clarify a number of provisions that, if not done, may jeopardize and slow down the construction and maintenance of highways, railways and waterways” continues FEPORT Secretary General.
“Last but not least, we can’t but agree with the content of the ministerial declaration regarding the need to boost the creation of multimodal transport corridors and all initiatives which aims at facilitating the circulation of information between the different parties of the logistics chain” concludes Ms. Lamia Kerdjoudj-Belkaid.
