Freedom for Coastal Shipping, or Bust
Alexandros Panagopoulos, president and managing director of Superfast Ferries, told guests at last month’s Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises meeting that unless coastal shipping is liberalized, now, the entire sector would fall into decay.
He said no new ships would be ordered and the sector would simply keep going backwards. And he reminds that even if liberalization of the sector was decided upon today, it wouldn’t be effective until next year.
After that was assured, it would take three to four years to gather the capital to order new vessels.
“What must happen immediately is the complete enforcement of EC regulation 3577/92 for the full liberlization of our coastal shipping,” he stressed.
The announcement comes at a time when ferry companies are threatening to slash passenger routes to the islands due to financial problems, and the European Commission is demanding the deregulation of Greece’s port services.
The European Commission says Greece’s merchant marine ministry does not have the power to impose a network of coastal shipping routes, or to demand letters of guarantee, or to specify how a ship must be crewed. And in particular, it says the ministry cannot impose maximum prices for fares or for products sold on board.
The Merchant Marine Ministry says it supports this position of liberalization but only under certain conditions and terms, all of which would take into account the safeguarding of jobs and the maintenance and increase in the number of these jobs.
It says it has satisfied the Commission by freeing coastal shipping that leaves from specific ports to specific destinations (not out of the country’s main ferry port, Piraeus).
But the Commission says it finds this “semi-freedom” unacceptable and is ready to bring Greece before the European Court of Justice. Meanwhile, recent newspaper reports say that the merchant marine ministry and the country’s minister of the Aegean expect more than 300 million euros in government funds, which will be used to subsidize some selected ferry lines on less popular coastal shipping routes.
Although shipping remains one of Greece’s key industries, a number of problems have been plaguing the sector, which in turn weigh on economic growth and the vital tourism industry.
As well, shipowners say that if Greece does not proceed with changes to its laws on the permissible age of vessels, then they may have to cut their fleets by as much as half.
One of the key problems, shipowners added, is the failure to deregulate the shipping industry in Greece despite European Union guidelines dictating the move.
Mr. Panagopoulos said that if the present legislation remains in force, by 2008, because of the 30-year age limit for ships, Greek seas would be left with half of its present fleet. He added that there is no way the government can afford to manage our coastal shipping sector.
Separately, but during the same meeting, guests were told by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises that international arrivals at Athens airport increased annually by 12.58 percent in between January and May 2005, the first year after the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece.
Overall figures from eight Greek airports show a 3.58 percent rise in arrivals, with Rodos leading with 14 percent. “The increase in the country’s recognizability due to the Olympics and the advertising campaign, which was nothing like before,” contributed in the rise, said Stavros Andreadis, the association’s president.
Also, preliminary data for June are positive for Thessaloniki, Rodos and Heraklion, while Corfu remains in decline.