First Ministerial conference in Slovenia to promote Motorways of the sea

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1 The European Freight and Logistics Leaders Forum Avenue de Tervueren 270, 1150 Brussels, Belgium Tel: (32 2) Fax: (32 2) Issue 3, March 2006 First Ministerial conference in Slovenia to promote Motorways of the sea The first Ministerial Conference on the preparation of the future Motorways of the sea, was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the 24th of January Co-hosted by European Commission Vice-President in charge of transport, Jacques Barrot, together with the Slovenian Minister of Transport, Janez Bozic, the conference gathered over 100 participants from industry, Member States and the European Parliament to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the Motorways of the sea. Part of the trans-european networks, this new initiative aims at replacing the heavy trucks on European highways with maritime transport. Key issues on the agenda of the conference included the selection of ports and port regions, maritime links and the question of financing. F&L Vienna General Meeting Last November, the European Freight and Logistics Leaders Forum celebrated its General Assembly in Vienna, inviting Helmut Kukacka, the Austrian Transport Secretary of State, to address the meeting. Other relevant participants in the ˆ ˆ Jacques Barrot In his speech, Jacques Barrot stressed the Commission's goal to develop motorways of the sea as attractive alternatives for road transport. This could have economical and environmental benefits. He said that in order to make motorways of the sea competitive they have to be frequent and of high quality standards. A good concentration of the flow of event were Ivan Sorensen, in representation of the Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, Victor Schoenmakers, representing the Port of Rotterdam, and Ferdinand Schmidt, member of the board of Rail Cargo Austria. goods is essential for the success of the motorways of the sea. They are funded through both the TEN-T funds and the Marco Polo programme. The Member States should set up close cooperation with stakeholders to determine three things. These are: the implementation of motorways of the sea, the need for both public and private funding, and the technical analyses needed. The image of short sea shipping needs to be improved and communicated to shippers. The aim is to have motorway of the sea associated with speed, regularity, safety, and quality of service. The Baltic Corridor, one of the four Motorways of Sea regions, was described by Antti Vehvilainen, member of F&L Management team. In his speech in the ministerial conference he emphasized the interest of industry and trade to promote these routes in practise. On the other hand participation to open funding systems, like Marco Polo, can often create problems from business secret point of view. He also regarded the EU processes to run late as many state-ofthe-art transport solutions are already implemented by the industry. From left to right: Johannes Fritzen (Volkswagen), Armand Toubol (SNCF), Franco Castagnetti (New Opera Project Coordinator), Frank Otten (DSM) and Ivan Sorensen (DG- TREN) at the F&L Vienna Meeting. The gala dinner was celebrated in the Pallavicini Palace which everybody enjoyed very much while listening to a fabulous classical music quartet. The meeting was completed with a visit to LKW Walter facilities on Friday afternoon. A more detailed information regarding the whole event will be given in the next printed issue of the Newsletter. Next F&L General Meeting will take place in Budapest, 18-19th May He commented: "The enthusiasm of local governments and authorities support well the Corridor idea, but are they late? The start of master-planning future studies should have been executed already some times ago. Thus it would have had the possibility to support industry and trade when needed. Now we are in the reverse mode of development. Now the flag follows the trade, which - most probably - is contrary to the initial ideas and targets of the Commission." F&L Newsletter 1

2 The European Intermodal Association (EIA) launches the first handbook on European intermodal freight transport This first intermodal handbook, including a foreword by Jacques Barrot, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Transport, provides a comprehensive summary explaining "Intermodalism from A to Z" in a compact form, combined with concrete business fact sheets and written in English. It is published by the European Intermodal Association (EIA) and can be ordered now. The handbook gives major insights into all aspects of Intermodal transport, from production and technology to quality, markets and policy issues. This new reference point for the intermodal industry includes contributions from China, Turkey and the USA. Apart from the main explanatory text, about 50 additional fact sheets of successful intermodal players give an insight regarding their strategy, experiences, services and products. Sponsors and contributors of fact sheets are: AAE, Ambrogio, Amrie, Polzug Intermodal GmbH, Port of Rotterdam, Rail Cargo Austria, ÖBB, Port of Taranto, OOCL and Via Donau and many others stemming from all transport modes, like HUPAC, KALMAR, STINNES, manufacturing industries (NIKE, Procter & Gamble), research dissemination entities (ExtraWeb), media (Cargo Systems), various professional transport associations and the EU Commission. This userfriendly and colourful book also includes lots of pictures and graphs. For ordering and more information please visit: 2 F&L Newsletter

3 News from Directorate General Energy and Transport European Commission sets out ambitious action programme to boost Inland Waterway Transport On 17th January 2006, the Commission proposed a multi-annual Action Programme in order to foster transport by inland waterways in Europe. Inland Waterway Transport is a significant option to improve Europe's transport system which is suffering from congestion, delays and which harms the environment. Shifting more freight to water will help to deal with the constantly growing freight flows. Moreover, Inland Waterway Transport has great potential to be fully integrated into the door-todoor logistics chains. The Action Programme addresses five key components: services, fleet, staff, image and infrastructure. Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of transport, Jacques Barrot, commented: The NAIADES action plan is a contribution to Europe's strategy for growth and employment. With a fleet of vessels and a capacity equalling trains or trucks, inland waterways can make transport in Europe more efficient, reliable and environmental friendly. Europe cannot afford to leave that potential untapped The Action Programme focuses on five strategic areas: Creating favourable conditions for services and attracting new markets, Stimulating fleet modernisation and innovation, Attracting new workforce and increasing investment in human capital, Promoting Inland Waterway Transport as a successful business partner through a promotional network and Providing an adequate inland waterway infrastructure. Finally, the Commission looks at the different options for modernising the regulatory environment to take up the challenges ahead. The time frame for the implementation of the plan is the period The programme is addressed to all levels responsible for Inland Waterway Transport, the industry itself, Member States and the European Union. More information on the NAIADES Action Programme is available at: European social rules for road transport On February 2nd 2006, the European Parliament adopted the agreement on the draft European legislation to improve driving times and rest periods for professional drivers and step up checks on lorries. Drivers will have at least two full days off every two weeks and a longer rest period each day. These new rules clarify the existing rules and bring the practices of the different EU Member States closer together. They also contribute to road safety. Opening up new markets has to go hand in hand with rules that apply to everyone to ensure fair working conditions. These European social rules create new rights for workers and protect against social dumping, said Jacques Barrot, Commission Vice-President responsible for transport. F&L Newsletter 3

4 Rail reform in the United Kingdom is a success and a model for Europe! At a seminar held in Brussels on the 23rd of February 2006, leaders of the UK rail industry and freight customers confirmed that the UK's rail reform had been highly beneficial to the national freight and passenger market, which has grown by 60% and 40% respectively in the last ten years and attracted over Euro 2 bn of private sector investment in rail freight alone. The seminar, attended by over 100 government and railway officials, customers and politicians from EU Member States and institutions, was designed to set the record straight about the success of the UK railway reform, and demonstrate that this structure, on which the EU open access programme was largely based, would achieve growth, improved service quality and investment in the EU's railways. The event had been prompted by the allegedly negative views of a number of stakeholders in several Member States regarding the structure and performance of the rail sector in the UK. Many stakeholders base their opposition to full implementation of the EU's open access proposals on this perception. The crucial question therefore considered today by the 14 speakers at the joint seminar organised by EIM, ERFA and ERFCP was 'How beneficial has the restructuring of the rail sector in the UK been, particularly for freight?' All the speakers set the record straight by confirming that the UK rail reform had indeed benefited both the system as a whole and its stakeholders. These UK railway leaders demonstrated that the reform had significantly improved customer service, productivity and performance, and had triggered busting growth in the UK's rail freight sector. At the same time, safety and reliability have also improved, resulting in higher customer and passenger satisfaction rates. Moreover, stakeholder confidence has boomed, leading to substantial private investment in the sector. Thus, allegations of inadequate government backing or support from industry for the vertically separated model are incorrect. The organisers of the seminar believe that the UK experience confirms that it was right for the EU to choose the open access packages on the railways. They denounce those administrations who are seeking to prevent or delay full implementation of the open access packages and therefore allow anticompetitive and monopolistic practices to continue. The administrations are preventing growth and service quality improvements that customers want, but also preventing private sector investment in the railways. They call on the European Commission and all Member States to urgently implement the EU open access proposals in a fair, comprehensive and transparent manner, to achieve the growth, improved service quality and private sector investment that both the industry and its customers so desperately need. For further information: E u r o p e a n Rail Infrastructure Managers - Veerle Abeel / European Rail Freight Association - Monika Heiming / European Rail Freight Customer Platform - Klaus Meyer F&L Newsletter

5 Great success for the 2nd NEW OPERA Stakeholders' Conference On the 20th of January 2006, the European Freight & Logistics Leaders Forum and UNIFE (Association of the European Railway Industry) organised the 2nd New Opera Stakeholders' Conference in Brussels. The conference was very successful and attended by over 80 partcipants representing the leading European industries and service providers. The purpose of the Conference was to present the Stakeholders and the European Commission the results of the first year into the New Opera Project. Franco Castagnetti, the New Opera project coordinator, chaired the meeting, while the various task leaders illustrated their achievements to an interested audience. Catherine Prudhomme and Theodor Schlickmann, the Project's Scientific Officer, representing DG Transport & Energy, made statements on the situation and progress of the European Transport Policy and elaborated on their expectations from New Opera as well as from other connected projects. The debate with the audience concentrated on the strategic vision of the concept of European Rail Freight Network. The main characteristics were the projected future rail freight links towards Asia interconnecting Europe with the Transiberian line and central Europe directly by rail into China. This development toward the East will bring a totally new dimension to the future rail freight perspectives headed to capture the important flows emerging from the new trade patterns. This new rail freight network encompasses the lines already decided by the E.U. TEN T priority corridors and is set in the years to come to bring substantial relief to the existing congested European trade lanes, adding the much needed rail carrying capacity for the future European economic development. Additionally to the new trade patterns, the supply chain research on the customers' needs has been developed as well as the new traction patterns following the opening of the rail market implemented by the EU's 3 railway packages. For further information please visit Latest contributions of F&L to European Commission public consultations: TEN-T extension (31st March 2005) High Level Group report (10th March 2006) F&L is also member of the European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC) F&L Newsletter 5