Shortsea Promotion Centre Flanders
Who are we?
History
The European perspective
For years the roads have been becoming increasingly congested. As this threatens the smooth transport of goods within the growing European economy, it is obvious that other transport modes have to be sought, in particular the transport of goods using water. In 1992 the Flemish government has established Promotion Inland Navigation Flanders with the intention to encourage a modal shift from the road to the inland waterways.
Since, by definition, the transport of goods is often a cross-border activity and, therefore, the problem has to be tackled in a “European” fashion, a number of round-table conferences were organised in the nineties to promote the maritime transport along the European coastal waters as an alternative to road congestion. Such “coastal shipping” had been in existence for a long time, but geographically it had been restricted to the West-European coast and to ships with a relatively limited capacity.
In the wake of those round-table conferences the European Commission launched the more trendy term “shortsea shipping” instead of the old notion of coastal navigation, giving it at the same time a substantial extension: geographically the area in which shortsea shipping takes place was extended to include the whole of Europe, as well as Northern Africa, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In addition, the limitation of the capacity was also abandoned. In some countries the SSS vessels (“coasters”) can also sail on the inland waterways: this sea-river navigation is considered to be shortsea navigation too. In that context so-called sea-river ships have to be used, which can lower their wheel house, so they can pass under low bridges. The advantage of such sea-river traffic is that the freight can be loaded or unloaded inland, close to the customer.
The European Commission uses the following, purely technical, definition:
“Shortsea shipping is the transport of goods and/or passengers along a route which at least in part consists of the sea or the ocean, but on which the ocean isn’t crossed.”
In the latter half of the nineties, the authorities of most European coastal countries created “Focal Points” to act as contacts for the European Commission and to start the promotion of shortsea shipping.
The Flemish perspective
In Flanders a project group was established in 1997 to prepare the creation of a “promotion office for the advancement of shortsea shipping”. That project group submitted a proposal for implementation to the Flemish government. In April 1998 the Shortsea Promotion Centre Flanders was established under the umbrella of Promotion Inland Navigation Flanders.
In September 2000 a market prospector was recruited. The promotion carried out by the Promotion Centre is based on a business plan (currently for 2007-2010) and focuses on those activities that have their point of departure or their destination in Flanders. This includes both port/port and door/door loading and unloading activities, as well as sea-river traffic.
The Promotion Centre has a neutral and non-commercial status and acts as a go-between who brings concerned parties around the table. By consistently positioning itself in that way and by its extensive networking, the Promotion Centre has become the information centre for questions concerning intermodal door/door transports. In the mean time, road haulage operators have also become a party interested in cooperation (“synergy”) with shortsea shipping, as they too increasingly experience problems with the contractual obligations concerning delivery times.
The rather strict notion of “modal shift” has meanwhile evolved towards the concept of co-modality, introduced by the European Commission. In that new notion the merits of each transport mode are assessed and that way the logistic chain is composed.
European Shortsea Network (ESN)
In 2000 it became clear that the national or regional promotion of shortsea shipping was not enough as, by definition logistic chains and also SSS are cross-border activities. Besides, the removal of obstacles required a wider “European” approach. There was also a need for communication.
On 1 December 2000 the Flemish promotion centre was one of the founders of the European Shortsea Network, an informal network. At that time six promotion centres were active and they started up the network.
The network has grown rapidly and, as from 1 January 2008, it already has 20 members: Belgium (Flanders), Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Some coastal countries still absent in the network are currently developing their promotion centre. Some promotion centres are meanwhile already working on an “intermodal” level: the Netherlands (rail-SSS), Flanders (inland navigation-SSS) etc. The European Commission has requested that extension in 2007.
Uniformity has been strived for on the international level: the uniform designation is “Shortsea Promotion Centre” followed by the name of the country in English. As far as Belgium is concerned this has become SPC Belgium, because the European Commission only recognises countries. Also the websites (www.shortsea.country code) and e-mail addresses (shortsea@shortsea.country code) have been made uniform as much as possible.
In the course of ESN’s development candidate members of the EU have already been included.
Promotion centres are proposed by the national “Focal Point” in order to be recognised by the European Commission. Only after that can they become a member of the ESN.
It is the mission of the ESN to stimulate SSS and to develop activities around shortsea shipping. Bottlenecks are tackled and networking is intensified. Particularly the exchange of “best practices” between the promotion centres is an important issue. In addition, the ESN has amassed a large amount of experience which can be called upon.
