Meeting 6 Summary Report 21.6.2011

BalticSea ParliamentaryConferenceWorkingGroup onIntegratedMaritimePolicyTo: 5th August 2011Representatives of Parliaments,ParliamentaryAssemblies,Institutions andWorking GroupMembersof the BalticSea ParliamentaryConferenceAbstract of the 6th session of the Working Group on „Integrated Maritime Policy,especiallyinfrastructure andlogistics” inSchwerin on19th – 21st June 2011The 6th and final session of the BSPC Working Group on “Integrated Maritime Policy” tookplace in Schwerin, Germany, between 19th and 21st June 2011 at the premises of the StateParliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.The session saw expert presentations on the issue of port infrastructure and the challengesfaced in the Baltic Sea region related to integrated maritime policy. Mr Schulte welcomed theexperts.Mr Manfred Müller-Fahrenholz (Managing Director of Neptun Shipyards) introduced thesister companies Mayer Shipyard in Papenburg and the Neptun Shipyard in Rostock. Heexplained the shipbuilding process and continued with the building programme which, forexample, includes passenger ships, lifestock carries, gas tankers and container ships. Hestated that it is easy to define values for air emission regulation but how to achieve themwould be the question. Mr Müller-Fahrenholz explained that his company would see LNG asa main future fuel. In his opinion, a competitive system that is available for everyone must bedeveloped because today LNG is expensive and not everywhere available. Mr Müller-Fahrenholz mentioned the issue of shore power after he explained the disadvantages of theuse of catalysts and scrubbers. In his opinion, the supply of shore power is difficult. A lot ofenergy and infrastructure is required for this and the shore has to be capable of dealing withthis. Cables, feeding lines, a standardization of ship to shore connections and a controlsystem need to be installed. It can be done, but the conditions under which the electricitysupply is made maynot be environmentallyfriendly. Lastly, Mr Müller-Fahrenholztouched onthe topic of rules and regulations. There are various regulations in the Baltic Sea, he stated,but also regulations within each individual state. There must be clear rules for the operatorsof the yards regarding the construction of future ships, how to develop changes for thevessels to make them able to serve ports in sensitive areas while also giving the passengersaqualitativelyhigh journeyand not pollutetheenvironment.Mr Hans-Jörg Wenzel (Project Manager at P+S Werften) gave his presentation onEcological ship specifications: realisation at the RoPAX GR12 ferries for Scandlines. MrWenzel thereafter presented a couple of concepts of vessels operated with alternativeenergy, such as the vessel operation with modern sail concepts (SKYSAIL/BELUGA). Heunderlined that as long as these technologies are not technically matured, yards and ownerswould have to take small steps based on the state of the art. The RoPAX GR12 ferries mightbe an innovative energy-optimised ferry project. The vessels in their design already differ tocurrent ferries in the Baltic, because of certain aspects on the line Rostock – Gedser. For theBaltic Sea the hull optimisation is a significant part of the design, Mr Wenzel stated. Anotherpart of this energy optimisation is the sophisticated propulsion system. The 2 x gensets of4300 kW each and the 3 x main engines of 4500 kW each will be used in accordance to theneeds of the nautical situation. With regard to the problematic of LNG the challenges for theharbours are how to provide and how to ensure a safe operation. If the LNG for dual-fuelconcepts shall be used for these passenger ferries, a safe infrastructure for LNG bunkeringhas tobe established by2015, MrWenzel argued.Mr Erik Andersson Pauldin (Ports of Stockholm) thankedthe hostsfor the invitation and thepossibility to speak on the topic of Ports of Stockholm as a sustainable cruise destination.The City of Stockholm is the owner of Ports of Stockholm. Since 1990 the region has grownand the population of Stockholm will also continue to rise until the year 2030. This is on theone hand a good development but on the other hand also a big challenge especially when itcomes to building new departments and to constructing a sustainable traffic and transportsystem. Mr Pauldin explained that Ports of Stockholm has three ports. One port is locateddirectly in the city of Stockholm and two harbours nearby Stockholm. In 2010 Ports ofStockholm hadmore 12million ferryand cruise passengers and aflowof goods of 8,4milliontonnes. The turnover conducts approximately 68 million Euros. The environmental impact bya port, Mr Pauldin continued, can and should be looked at from two points, namely from thedirect impact, such as impact from ones own operational activities, and from the indirectimpact, which is the impact that the ports customers and ship owners have on theenvironment. For example, we gave discounts to vessles for reducing sulphur and nitrogenoxides emissions, for sorting out ship-generatedwaste andfor lowwater content in sludge.Due to the environmental work of Ports of Stockholm, the NOx emissions from vessels couldbe reduced by 40% between 1995 and 2006. For the same period, sulphur could be reducedby60% and all tankers have double bottom hulls.Mr Sten Björk (Port of Trelleborg, Project Leader Clean Baltic Sea Shipping) began hispresentation on the Clean Baltic Sea Shipping project by speaking about the origin of theproject and informed about its main objectives. There are for example pilot projects withshore side electricity for ferries and cruisers that have been started by the Port of Oslo andTrelleborg. Moreover, pilot projects with voluntary ferry owner port agreements for pumpingover all sewage and biological wastes when in port have been started in the Ports ofStockholm, Trelleborg and Helsinki. Mr Björk explained that the project has introduced fourworking groups and one of them would deal with the issue of LNG. He affirmed that weshould try to get away from fossil energy and in Skåne have started to produce biogasmethane. Mr Björk stated that in the pilot projects, several issues will be looked at. Forexample, the port of Klaipeda will elaborate how local small scale LNG logistics to ships canbe derived from a large LNG import terminal and the port of Trelleborg will elaborate howBio-LNG logistics can be organised from a biogas plant to ships at the berths. Coming to thechallenges faced, Mr Björk argued that a joint clean shipping strategy would require intensivecooperation between all stakeholders. Thefinal goal for the project might be a Baltic Seafreefrom water and air pollution. It would be a largegoal but onethat isachievable.Mr Jörg Sträussler (Clean Baltic Sea Shipping, Baltic Energy Forum) gave his presentationon What can parliamentarians do to support Clean Shipping? One of the first issues hetouched upon was that of eutrophication. If nothing is done, the Baltic Sea will be dead by2020, he argued. Air pollution is not a minor polluter of the Baltic Sea he argued and told theparticipants that HELCOM states that shipping contributes by 16% to air pollution, making itthe largest single emission source for NOx in the HELCOM area. Moreover, Mr Sträusslerunderlined that EMSA has found 50 different systems for waste and wastewatermanagement being implemented at 50 different ports.Wemust arrive at joint regulations andjoint systems. Clean shipping would need a clear strategy, Mr Sträussler stated. Therefore itwould be ideal to have a clear cut and coherent integrated clean shipping part in theintegrated maritime policy. Mr Sträussler stated that the innovation curve of LNG startedfairly slowly, but he is certain that as the year 2015 is approaching as regards SOx or 2016as regards NOx, the innovation curve and the implementation curve will drastically increase.Mr Sträussler added that bilateral contracts for the reduction of ship borne wastewaters suchas those undertaken between Stockholm, Turku and Helsinki should also be arrangedbetween other nations of the Baltic Sea area. Thereafter, Mr Sträussler indicated where inthe Baltic Sea area LNG production facilities are located, under construction, neardevelopment or where discussions are taking place but no further steps have been taken. MrSträussler underlined his believe that LNG would be the optimum solution for shipping asregards fuel. Funding of shipping should be focused on clean shipping, Mr Sträussler furtherexplained. The focus should incorporate LNG, shore side electricity, fuel cells, hydrogen,methanol and others and the majority of funding should go to conversion of ships to greenships rather than to the construction of new ships. When thinking about clean shipping, afocus should also be on research and development, Mr Sträussler stated. In the Baltic Seacountries, research and development platforms on clean shipping are needed and theexisting maritime clusters should be joined. There remains a big gap concerning thetreatment of LNG in relation to other fuels. Heavy fuels are non-taxed, so ship owners canrely on the fact that their fuels are exempted from taxes. Moreover, tax reductions on shoreside electricity already exist in Germany and Sweden, but these taxations should beharmonised, Mr Sträussler held. Clean Shipping should be anchored in European policies.For instance, not much is mentioned on clean shipping in the Integrated Maritime Policy ofthe European Union, Mr Sträussler criticized. There is a gap and politicians should arrangefor clean shipping to become avisible part of thispolicy.The second session dealt with fields of cooperation. Chairman Jochen Schulte welcomed theguest from the Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation (BSSSC) and the Council of BalticSea States(CBSS).Vice-Chairman Roger Jansson who had represented the Working Group in Gdansk gave ashort report on the European Maritime Day event. He called the event a promising premiereas it had been the first ever common presentation of the maritime policy groups of the threeorganisationsto alargerEuropean public.As a representive of the CBSS Mr Lars Almklov mentioned the five CBSS long term broadpriority areas being environment, economic development, energy, education and culture, civilsecurityand the humandimension. Tofocus onthese areas, it had beendecided to establishexpert groups which could include experts with a clear and time-limited mandate and tasks.The EGMP was a cross-sectoral group with three focus areas, the main focus area being theeconomic development, including innovation and competitiveness and a favourable businessenvironment, fostering entrepreneurship, cluster development, transport and logistics andresearch and development in the maritime policy field. The second focus of the group wasenergy, including energy security and efficiency as well as the environmental aspect ofenergy efficiency in the maritime policy field. The EGMP had focused on having a closerelation with BSPC and BSSSC. On the issue of environmental protection, Mr Almklovexplained that the current Norwegian chairmanship had also organised three meetings,including a workshop focusing on promoting LNG as an environmental friendly alternative toexisting fuels for shipping which was in particular relevant for the Baltic Sea, bearing in mindthe new sulphur and possible NOX regulations for the region. He noticed that the potential ofLNG was one item of commoninterest of theEGMP and theBSPCWorking Group.Mr Dietrich Seele gave an outline of the plans of the upcoming German CBSS presidencywhich would start officially on 1st July 2011. Maritime policy would be one of the mostimportant priorities of the German presidency. The presidency wanted to continue andintensify the work of the EGMP in this respect. In accordance with the elements ofcompetitiveness, environment and climate change, the priorities of the German presidencywere the following: improving the dialogue of maritime policy actors and pooling the maritimepolicy initiatives of BSPC, BSSSC and CBSS, strengthening innovation by supportingmaritime research and maritime clusters in the BSR and by further development of existingdatabases of maritime relevance, developing the possibility to support politically cross-sectoral projects that served as an example to demonstrate the added value of Baltic Seacooperation. The CBSS had already successfully supported some very important projects,e.g. Clean Baltic Shipping (which would now receive EU funding from the Baltic SeaProgramme). Another new element would be to build up an exchange of information andexperience with other European maritime areas. There would be more sea basin strategiesin the near future and it seemed to be useful to have a regular exchange of information andexperience in that respect.Mr Stefan Musiolik said that he also considered the first joint event of the three MaritimeWorking Groups in Gdansk as quite successful. With the Schwerin meeting the second stepwas made and he hoped there would be further steps. The task of BSSSC was to promoteand advocate the interests of the regions to decision-makers on the national and Europeanlevel. For example, during the consultation process for the Baltic Sea Strategy, a commonstatement by the BSSSC was issued and now, during the phase of implementation theBSSSC also gave its vote to raise the voice of the regions. A Working Group of the BSSSCon Maritime Policy has been established in 2008. This working group has developed a fivepoint action plan. The action plan consisted of the following five points: onshore powersupply for ships in harbours to reduce emissions, environmentally differentiated harbourdues, a voluntary ban of wastewater discharges in the Baltic Sea, awarding of best practisein clean shipping and sustainable port management which was important to raise awarenessand the introduction of labels for Clean Baltic Shipping and sustainable ports. This five pointaction plan had been developed within BSSSC, but it was supported also by five other BalticSea organisations (Union of Baltic Cities, Baltic Sea Commission, B 7 Baltic Islands, BalticDevelopment Forum and Euroregion Baltic). It had been quite helpful that differentorganisations had spoken with one voice. The action plan had been fully integrated into theBaltic Sea Strategy proposed by the European Commission in June 2009 which helped a lotin moving forward in this policy field. Mr Musiolik has also mentioned the idea of anINTERREG project for Clean Baltic Sea Shipping and invited the BSPC to join the project bybecoming amember of the Political Committee.Mr Roger Jansson suggested to make a recommendation to the Standing Committee of theBSPC according toMr Musiolik’s offer.Mr Dietrich Seele added ideas for cooperation and a concrete dialogue between thedifferent organisations. He understood the meeting today as a starting point and as a coregroup for further organisations which should be involved during the next weeks and months.The CPMR, the Baltic Sea Commission and the Baltic Sea Forum were very keen on joiningthis cooperation. He mentioned in his introductory speech that Germany would look into thearchitecture of Baltic Sea cooperation and would like to generate more transparency andefficiencyof thewhole Baltic Sea architecture.Chairman Jochen Schulte proposed to prepare a common paper of the BSPC, CBSS andBSSSC including themajor pointsof Mr. Seele.Mr Dietrich Seele agreed with Mr Schulte’s proposal and said it would be possible to createa coherent strategy.Also Mr. Stefan Musiolik supported the idea to create a core group of the threeorganisations which could be supplemented by further organisations. He pointed out that thecommon meeting in Schwerin was a promising start, but in front of the background of thepossible end of the BSPC Working Group on Integrated Maritime Policy in August, he askedhimself how the promising steps could be continued and who would take them. It was verypromising to cometogether, but there would be some continuityneeded.Chairman Jochen Schulte added at the end of the second session that it would be plannedto integrate a paragraph in the final report on supporting further coordination and jointactivities between these institutions and that this paper could be a first step to support suchactivities.Chairman Jochen Schulte opened the discussion on the draft political recommendations ofthe WG for the 20th BSPC, the final report and on additional matters (morning and thirdsession). He pointed out that the draft as handed out to the participants during the thirdsession had been adjusted to meet the suggested changes as agreed on during the morningsession. The Working Group successively decided on the recommendations which will besubmittedfor theresolution of the 20th BSPC.On the 21st June 2011, the participants travelled to Rostock and to the district Warnemündeto see and hear about Rostock Port, Caterpillar Motors and Warnemünde Cruise Terminal.Port representatives explained that the main focus of the port is ferry and ro-ro traffic andthat Rostock is the only deep sea port on the German Baltic coast. Moreover, the port has ahigh-capacity road and railroad network to the hinterland with short transit times tometropolitan areas and economic hubs such as Berlin, Leipzig, Prague and Hamburg. It wasstated that the infrastructure development should be in line with sustainability andenvironmental friendliness. A next step in an environmentally friendly direction would be thesupply of shore side electricity, shore side gas and LNG facilities. Feasibility studies on theLNG issue were in progress.Thereafter, the participants joined a guided tour around Rostock Port and visited CaterpillarMotors in Rostock, where a presentation was given which explained Caterpillar as acompany, its products and how the company tries to meet the challenges posed by IMOlegislation concerning the reduction of NOx and SOx. Thereafter, a guided tour through themanufacturing hall followed. During the tour, the participants were able to see several shipmotors, including a VM43 C engine with an output range of 16000kW.The final visit for the group was at Warnemünde Cruise Terminal. Cruise shipping atWarnemünde Cruise Terminal is also operated by Rostock Port. It is one of the mostimportant cruise ports inGermanyandthe baseportfor AIDAcruises.