Agenda: EP REGI Committee Meeting (20 February 2019)

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Draft Agenda: European Parliament Plenary Session (11 – 14 March 2019)

Press Release: EIB Group continued increasing its activity in Portugal in 2018

“The EU bank’s financing activity contributing to climate action continued to grow. In 2018, this financing represented 41% of the Bank´s activity in the country, contributing to the development of projects promoting the implementation of more energy-efficient production processes and fostering the use of renewable energies. The financing of infrastructure also increased to reach a total of EUR 499m, mainly dedicated to financing the rehabilitation and expansion of irrigation infrastructure in rural areas and the modernisation of Portuguese ports, among other projects.”

ALDE Press Release: Establishing a “European Maritime Single Window environment”

The last Trilogue negotiation on the “European Maritime Single Window environment”,(EMSWe) took place yesterday successfully.

Press Release: Roads to peace: EU supports reconnecting Eritrea and Ethiopia

Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica is visiting Eritrea today, where he launches an initial €20 million project to rebuild the road connection between the Ethiopian border and Eritrean ports.

Press Release: Maritime transport: Commission welcomes provisional agreement on the European Maritime Single Window environment

UPDATED – Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on port reception facilities for the delivery of waste from ships

Press Release: EU adapts trans-European transport networks to prepare for a ‘no-deal’ Brexit – presidency reaches provisional agreement with Parliament

Today, the Romanian presidency reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a proposal to ensure new maritime connections between Ireland and the other EU countries on the North Sea-Mediterranean core network corridor of the Trans-European transport network (TEN-T) in the event that the United Kingdom leaves the EU without a negotiated agreement. The reformulation of the corridor and a limited number of other targeted amendments to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) regulation will ensure continuity for infrastructure investments and provide legal clarity and certainty for infrastructure planning. The agreement will now be submitted to member states’ representatives in the Council for endorsement.

Press Release: Cutting red tape for ships – provisional agreement with Parliament on maritime single window

The EU is streamlining its ship reporting systems by creating a European maritime single window, which will bring together all reporting formalities associated with a port call. Today, the Romanian presidency and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on this reform, which will significantly reduce the administrative burden on the shipping sector and improve its competitiveness compared to other means of transport. The agreement will now be submitted to member states’ representatives in the Council for endorsement.

Press Release: Commissioners Andriukaitis and Vella hosting Citizens’ Dialogue in Lithuania

Briefing: Port reception facilities for ship waste: Collecting waste from ships in ports

Marine litter and pollution put the marine environment at risk. While a great proportion of marine litter originates from land-based sources, limiting waste discharges from ships also plays an essential role in efforts to preserve marine and coastal ecosystems. Based on international law, EU legislation requires vessels to bring the waste they generate on voyages to waste-reception facilities in port, and obliges EU ports to provide such facilities to ships using the port. Despite these developments, discharges at sea continue. In January 2018, the European Commission put forward a new legislative proposal seeking to improve the collection of ship waste while ensuring efficient maritime transport operations in ports.

Briefing: European maritime single window: Harmonised digital reporting for ships

Every time a ship calls at a port, its maritime transport operator has to submit a set of pre-arrival information to a range of entities and agencies. Currently, the reporting process is not harmonised across EU ports. In addition, the information provided by ships is not efficiently shared among the actors concerned. The resulting multiple reporting places an excessive administrative burden on shipping operators, with negative impacts rippling down the logistics chain. Within broader efforts to modernise EU transport, the European Commission is proposing to bring all the reporting linked to a port call together into one digital space – the ‘European Maritime Single Window’, to harmonise reporting procedures for shipping operators and to ensure data can be shared and reused efficiently.

Press Release: The H2Ports Project Kicks Off in Valencia

The project will test and validate hydrogen technologies for port machinery in order to achieve solutions that produce zero local emissions, without affecting the performance and safety of port operations. H2PORTS will allow these new prototypes to be demonstrated at the Grimaldi and MSC terminals in the Port of Valencia, which will become the first European port to incorporate hydrogen energy to reduce the environmental impact of its operations.