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Lloyds List via NewsEdge Corporation :

BRUSSELS has resurrected plans to impose pollution tax on ports as part of a fund-raising effort for its trans-European transport networks.

The initiative came to light yesterday as France’s emphatic rejection of the European Union constitution in Sunday’s referendum cast doubt on the future direction of EU policy.

The European Commission is preparing a policy paper suggesting the port industry pay for the pollution it causes via a tax similar to the ‘Eurovignette’ system proposed for road haulage.

Pollution and congestion are two of the principal hidden costs the commission is targeting in both the port and the airport industry.

The EU paper, known as a ‘communication’, is due to be published later this year and is sure to raise the ire of the EU port industry, which helped to bury the commission’s first attempt to impose pollution pricing in the late 1990s.

‘It looks as if they are trying again, and I can foresee a lot of resistance,’ said Patrick Verhoeven, secretary general of the European Sea Ports Organisation. ‘The first try was buried under a lot of criticism. The industry does not want any interference in pricing.’

Enrico Pasquerelli, director for inland transport in the transport ministry confirmed the commission wants to have another go.

Talking at a seminar to discuss progress on the Eurovignette tax, he said the forthcoming ‘communication would see the [Eurovignette] principle extended to ports and airports’. The introduction would serve to ‘raise funds for TRENs [Trans-European Networks]’.

The commission would like to make all forms of transport pay for the infrastructure they use as well as hidden costs including global warming and accidents a principle known as ‘internalising external costs’.

Politicians at all levels are divided on the issue, which is still unresolved in Brussels.

The Eurovignette proposal has made slow progress through the EU law-making machinery, and a key figure in the European parliament’s transport committee has warned the commission against widening the scope of its revenue-raising scheme to include ports and airports.

‘This is about road transport. I am hesitant to bring in other forms of transport,’ said Couren Wartmann-Kool the Dutch Euro MP responsible for drawing up the parliament’s response to the Eurovignette proposal.

Legislative proposals could be attached to the commission’s port ‘communication’, which will set out policy direction. Alternatively, draft Bills could follow at a later date.

The EU trans-European transport networks are designed to bring Europe together via huge multimodal arteries. The networks are both under-funded and also behind schedule.

<<Lloyds List — 05/31/05>>