“Now the challenge is to block the Ets pending the new Imo regulations”
Rome – “The challenge, in the next 6-8 months, is to ask for the Ets to be blocked pending new regulations at the Imo level, the world organization on maritime affairs. Because the sea must connect everyone and Europe cannot have different rules than others, otherwise there is a risk of isolating ourselves and above all of creating tensions between states”.
The Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Edoardo Rixi takes stock in Rome, at the fifth edition of the Shipmag Observatory on “Geologistics, new routes for new markets”. Fresh from his trip to London for the Imo meeting, he explains what the battle is about regarding the Emission trading system, what alliances are needed to achieve the objective and the expectations.
But he also underlines another point: “The Ets for the budgets of European states risks being like methadone, and that we can no longer do without it, because it is a net income. Either the issue is resolved within the next six months or it will be financially unmanageable for the European states because when everyone starts using part of the proceeds (even though it wasn’t supposed to be like that) to pay pensions and social services, it will become impossible to remove them”.
The risk, in short, is that the revenue turns into an income that “is addictive and not used for the maritime sector”. Not only that. Also from an environmental point of view – which it aims to protect – the application of the Ets system to the maritime sector could make things worse. “The creation of the Ets at a European level risks further pushing the Arctic route – which is indeed dangerous from an environmental point of view – which takes place outside European borders and will obviously lead to ships being relocated,” continues Rixi, speaking to the conference audience where operators who had expressed doubts and opposition from the beginning, warning of the risks, are seated.
“Every continent will be free to tax other nations’ ships as it wishes on CO2 emissions, so the Ets also risks creating a patchwork factor on regulations, putting into crisis one of the foundations on which the World Maritime Organization is based: namely that there are equal maritime rules in all countries of the world,” Rixi concludes.
Regarding the port reform, the Deputy Minister reaffirms the timeline. “The text is ready,” he says, and the goal is to bring it to the council of ministers “by Christmas” and then begin the discussion in Parliament.
One of the elements is the need for coordination of services. “My ministry cannot do it. It doesn’t have the powers – he says –. The Ministry of the Merchant Navy had them. But it is very difficult, due to the rules we have set for the public administration, to go back to creating a new ministry: it takes 5-6 years, so more than a full government term, which means it will never happen and it is a problem because we risk not having the tools to address the issues, including that of dredging. Therefore we need a coordinating body”.
The Porti spa is the focal point. What is needed is a company, Rixi emphasizes, not a public body. The reform will serve to ensure that the same services are provided in individual ports. And the company, to seize the investment opportunities that arise “I have nations asking me to manage their ports – says Rixi –. The Chinese do it, why can’t we Italians, who have the knowledge and the capacity, do it?”
I need there to be a system, a company that can go into those nations, form joint ventures, and manage some of the trade.”
To invest abroad, a publicly-owned majority company is needed, Porti spa, which “can create other companies”. This would be the model. “Something which a ministry obviously cannot do,” Rixi adds. “To set up a company today, I have to pass a law and it takes a year. If I have to open three ports around the world by establishing companies and going through state bureaucracy, it takes 10 years.”
In any case, the draft bill is the starting point, the discussion will open in Parliament, the Deputy Minister reiterates. The goal is to get started.
