No deal on waterways in sight

Date: 23/11/1995

By Michael Mann

EU transport ministers remain as far as ever from agreement on the Commission's plans to liberalise Europe's inland waterways network.

Meaningful discussions on proposals to abolish the so-called 'tour de rôle' system will only begin later this month, making it highly unlikely that ministers will get very far at their next meeting on 7-8 December.

“It's far too early for serious progress at the December Council. But we hope ministers will at least take the first step by expressing general agreement with the concept of liberalisation by the year 2000,” commented one official.

Despite a range of Commission initiatives designed to stimulate inland waterways and thus remove some of the haulage traffic from EU roads, ministers have succeeded only in reaching political agreement on the allocation of 5 million ecu towards a scrapping scheme - money which had already been earmarked in the budget anyway following pressure from the European Parliament.

But even this money is yet to be approved formally, and resistance led by the UK and Germany has put increased funding of 20 million ecu for 1996 under threat. Their reluctance stems mainly from an unwillingness to commit new money from a stretched EU budget.

The Netherlands, a central player in the inland waterways market, is pushing hard to generate support for EU funding. The Dutch government's stance is supported by Belgium, which officials in some member states accuse of trying to avoid paying its full national contribution towards scrapping schemes.

But the key to genuine improvement - the abolition of tour de rôle - is a long way from being realised. Tour de rôle obliges people wanting to move cargo by water within the member states to wait at a named exchange until a barge becomes available and pay a fixed price.

Although Germany halted its system of fixed pricing at the beginning of the year, tour de rôle arrangements remain the norm in Belgium, and will remain in force in France until the year 2000.

Of the 85 million tonnes of freight transported by inland waterways in the Netherlands every year, 16 million tonnes are covered by tour de rôle.

Officials suggest that the countries affected are in principal favourable towards liberalisation, but insist that it must be accompanied by the other parts of the package proposed by the Commission. This would continue structural reform to balance out over-capacity and amend state aid rules to allow increased investment in waterways and port infrastructure.

Confirmation of the Commission's approach to state aids in the sector came with last week's decision to approve French government aid of around 6 million ecu to small operators.

The Commission's original scrapping scheme, approved back in 1989, was a reaction to 20&percent; over-capacity in an industry under increasing pressure from road and rail transport.

It foresaw the establishment of an industry fund to provide financial incentives for the scrapping of old-fashioned and inefficient vessels.

Bearing in mind that several operators use their barges not just as a place of work but also as a home, the scheme offered financial incentives for scrapping at least one and a half times the capacity of any new vessels brought into service.

Officials from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Austria failed last week to persuade their German colleagues to end their resistance to increased EU-financing of structural measures.

“I don't think Germany's attitude is coming from the transport minister. It's more a question of Kohl and Waigel being seen to be careful with German taxpayers' money,” said an official.

The southern countries are also suspicious of the idea of part-funding restructuring measures with EU money, pointing out that the countries who will benefit are hardly the poorest in the Union.

Resistance to liberalisation is anticipated from barge operators, particularly in Belgium, because “the arrangements are still psychologically important to some people”, the official added.

But with Rhine shippers suggesting that up to 400 German barge firms alone are threatened by the current situation, there is clearly a need for quicker progress on the issue.

Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock is convinced that waterways have a future. “By making waterways more economically attractive, we will encourage freight operators to take cargoes off our congested roads,” he said at the launch of the Commission's initiative in May this year.