What are ‘neighbouring container handling ports’?

(SV 010)

A neighbouring container handling port is a port that meets the following criteria (cf. Article 3 ga(2) Directive 2003/87/EC):

• the proportion of container transhipment has exceeded 65 per cent of that port's total container traffic in the last twelve months,
• the port is located less than 300 nautical miles from the nearest EEA port,
• transhipment of containers takes place exclusively from ship to ship.

The purpose of designating such ports is to prevent avoidance manoeuvres to reduce the surrender obligation by making stopovers before entering the European Economic Area. For this reason, container ports in third countries that apply an emissions trading system comparable to the European one are not included in the above-mentioned container handling ports. The ports of ‘East Port Said’ in Egypt and ‘Tanger Med’ in Morocco were identified in a corresponding regulation for the start of emissions trading in the maritime transport sector.