EUROSTAT
Directorate E: Sectoral and regional statistics
Unit E-3: Transport
ESTAT/E-3
Doc.MAR-2014-Minutes
MARITIME TRANSPORT STATISTICS
(WG MTS)
held in luxembourg
bech building – Room Quetelet
on 21-22 May 2014
Starting at 09:45
Minutes
WG MTS 2014 - MINUTES
The Working Group on Maritime Transport Statistics (WG MTS) met in Luxembourg on 21 and 22 May 2014, to assess the activity in the European maritime transport statistics since the last meeting and discuss the progress and developments planned for the next two years.
The meeting was attended by the experts from the Member States, EFTA countries and candidate countries, as well as representatives from DG MOVE and the ANNA project on collection of maritime data through National Single Windows (NSWs) in the Member States.
Opening address
Ms Ruxandra Roman Enescu, Head of Unit for transport statistics in Eurostat, welcomed the participants and introduced Ms Boryana Milusheva as a new member of the maritime statistics team in Eurostat.
Item 2 Adoption of the agenda
The draft agenda was approved.
Item 3 Recent developments in EU transport policy
DG MOVE gave an overview of recent developments in EU transport policy and the resulting data needs for the maritime sector, focusing on:
· Policy goals in the 2011 White Paper on transport
· Internal market policies and emission policies for maritime transport
· Data needs related to performance indicators, environmental indicators and safety indicators
DG MOVE expressed particular needs for:
- New statistics on maritime performance by distance classes and at national level (in tonne-kilometres and passenger-kilometres)
- More detailed data on short sea shipping (island traffic, cabotage and feedering)
- Various environmental indicators (GHG emissions, use of marine fuels, waste collected in ports, etc.)
- Safety indicators (territorial attribution of accidents)
Eurostat commented that some of these issues would be addressed later in the meeting.
Eurostat also pointed out that although some of the new statistics required by DG MOVE is not directly linked to maritime transport, data for areas such as port waste facilities might become available when the new National Single Windows (NSW) for electronic collection of maritime and port data are implemented by the national maritime authorities and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in all Member States from 1 June 2015. Data from these systems could probably be directly accessed by DG MOVE for the purpose of impact assessments and similar policy benchmarking exercises.
Regarding data on maritime accidents, Eurostat has an on-going project aiming at collecting and disseminating maritime safety statistics in collaboration with EMSA.
Item 4 Recent developments in European maritime transport statistics
Eurostat presented the progress made in European maritime transport statistics since the meeting of the WG MTS in 2012, as well as prospects and planned developments, in the areas of:
· Timeliness, quality and dissemination
· Legal framework
· Methodology
· Intermodal transport and short sea shipping
· Port distance calculation tool
· Modal split indicators
· Maritime emission estimates
· IT and standardisation developments
· Data validation and quality assurance
Further details on each of these areas can be found in the document MAR-2014-04.
Discussion
Following the presentation, DE called for a review of the quality reports produced for maritime statistics, as the current reports do not clearly distinguish between immediate actions required by the countries and more medium-term or long-term quality objectives.
Eurostat replied that there is indeed some potential for improvements in the rather standardised quality reports and that a review will be conducted following the meeting in order to make the main results of the quality checks clearer in the text.
Regarding the timeliness and quality of the maritime data, Eurostat thanked the reporting countries for their efforts to comply with the requirements of Directive 2009/42 on maritime transport statistics and expressed confidence in the continued compliance effort of the few countries currently experiencing difficulties with the production systems.
Eurostat also underlined the fact that any requirements for new statistics put forward on Commission level are first investigated to see if there is possibility for collecting data without imposing additional burden on the reporting countries.
Conclusions
– The WG MTS took note of the progress and planned developments in the European maritime transport statistics.
– Eurostat took note of the stated difficulties in interpreting the quality reports and will suggest improvements to the current text following the meeting.
Item 5.1 Harmonisation of the list of ports
Eurostat presented the status of the harmonisation of the list of ports, the plans for preparing a new legal act with an updated list of European ports and a proposal for introduction of unique port codes used for offshore installations, aggregate extraction areas and ship-to-ship transfer.
Further details can be found in the document MAR-2014-05.1.
Discussion
DE, DK, NL, UK and TR approved the adoption of the new codes for offshore installations, aggregate extraction areas and ship-to-ship transfer. In addition, DE requested that the code DE88B should be changed into DE88O for “Ostsee”.
DK underlined that the new codes will make it easier to map the statistical codes with the codes used in the SafeSeaNet (SSN) system. However, some co-ordination with SSN is still needed to make sure that the same set of codes is used in the both systems.
NL pointed out that it is difficult to distinguish inland waterways ports from maritime ports using the UN/LOCODEs and that some coding problems are also encountered when communities or locations change names. NL also asked for information on the relevant contact person in UNECE for updates in UN/LOCODES to be distributed and would like some further bilateral consultation with Eurostat to solve the pending issues in the harmonisation of the Dutch port codes.
Eurostat confirmed that the code modifications presented in the meeting would indeed be a first step towards harmonising the codes used by Eurostat and SSN. Eurostat also agreed to forward UNECE contact details to all countries following the meeting and welcomed the initiative for bilateral contact with NL in order to finalise the harmonisation of the list of ports.
Conclusions
– The WG MTS took note of the status of the harmonisation process and of the plans to prepare a new legal act with a codified list of EU and EEA ports to replace Commission Decision 2008/861.
– The WG MTS agreed on the proposal to introduce new unique codes for offshore installations, aggregate extraction areas and ship-to-ship transfer.
– Eurostat will change the code DE88B referring to unknown German ports on the Baltic Sea to DE88O.
Item 5.2 Proposals for clarification of methodology
Eurostat presented recommendations on three methodological issues raised by reporting countries since the last meeting of the WG MTS. These issues cover:
· Recording of offshore supply vessels in data sets F1 and F2
· Recording of empty Ro-Ro units in data set C1 (with or without a container)
· Boundaries between maritime statistics and inland waterways (IWW) statistics
Further details about these methodological clarifications can be found in the document MAR-2014-05.2.
Discussion
DE agreed with the recommendations and particularly appreciated the recommendations made on fluvio-maritime traffic (transport carried out partly on inland waterways and partly on the sea).
NL pointed out that they cannot identify in the data whether a container is loaded on a Ro-Ro unit or not. A Ro-Ro unit not loaded with goods will therefore be reported as empty. Regarding the boundaries between maritime and inland waterways statistics, NL pointed out that transport from the UK to a Dutch IWW port will not be counted in the Dutch maritime statistics because such data is not reported to customs. NL also mentioned that the codes for UK ports are not accepted for use in the IWW statistics (an issue which was solved on technical level in the following coffee break).
FR pointed out that Ro-Ro units loaded with empty containers are considered to be empty in their production system, and added that it would be difficult to change this rule.
UK agreed with the recommendations on offshore supply vessels and fluvio-maritime traffic. Regarding empty Ro-Ro units loaded with empty containers, UK expressed some concern that valuable information could be lost by applying the recommendation proposed by Eurostat to these cases. In addition, UK expressed some challenges connected to data on bunkering, which they would like to discuss.
SE requested clarifications on what should be reported for transport to offshore installations: all goods and passengers and all vessels or just some of the vessels (depending on vessel type).
DK supported the recommendations on offshore supply vessels and fluvio-maritime traffic. DK also noted that a container can be considered as goods if a change of ownership is taking place. In this case, the weight of the container should be reported.
Eurostat proposed to contact CY after the meeting to discuss how to best to record empty containers transported on Ro-Ro units in the statistics, as the majority of countries seem to apply a different methodology than the one adopted by CY in these cases.
Eurostat noted that some information on bunkering is available in the Reference Manual and proposed to discuss this issue bilaterally with UK following the meeting.
Eurostat also clarified that only offshore supply vessels should be reported in data sets F1 and F2, as offshore support vessels in general should not transport goods or passengers to/from offshore installations. Eurostat also confirmed that if a transport unit (such as a container or a Ro-Ro unit) is transported for sale, it is considered to be the goods being transported and the weight of the unit should be reported in the statistics.
Conclusions
– The recommendations made regarding transport with offshore supply vessels were approved by the WG MTS as follows:
· Transport of goods and passengers to or from offshore installations should be included in the relevant data sets (as required by Directive 2009/42).
· Offshore supply vessels used for maritime transport of goods or passengers should be included in the vessel data sets F1 and F2.
· Offshore supply vessels should be reported using type of ship classification code 42 for “Offshore activities”.
– The recommendations made regarding fluvio-maritime transport were approved by the WG MTS as follows:
· All fluvio-maritime transport should be reported in the maritime transport statistics (as required by Directive 2009/42).
· The WG MTS was also in favour of the proposed recommendation for IWW statistics, stating that: “Fluvio-maritime transport should also be reported in the inland waterways statistics by the country in which the inland waterways part of the journey is undertaken (as required by Regulation 425/2007)”. In consequence, this recommendation will be forwarded to the IWW experts for consideration.
– As the approach adopted by CY for recording empty containers on Ro-Ro units is contrary to the approach used by several other countries, Eurostat will initiate a bilateral discussion on how to best harmonise the reporting of data in these cases.
Item 5.3 Update of the reference manual
Eurostat presented plans for updating the reference manual on maritime transport statistics, based on recent developments and the decisions taken under item 5.2.
Further details on the planned updates can be found in the document MAR-2014-05.3.
Conclusions
– The WG MTS took note of the planned updates of the reference manual, which includes a description of the new time series checks and the agreed methodological clarifications discussed under item 5.2 of the meeting.
– All reporting countries will be invited to update the information on their national methodologies by e-mail following the meeting.
Item 6.1 Port distance calculation tool
Eurostat presented the methodology developed for the second version of the port distance calculation tool and asked for volunteer countries to test the improvements.
Further details can be found in the document MAR-2014-06.1 and the presentation for item 6.1.
Discussion
UK wondered whether Eurostat had considered adding a buffer to the coastline when doing the maritime route calculations in order to reduce the need for manual corrections.
SE expressed an interest in testing the new version of the tool and asked if it would be possible to include the territorial waters of each country in the maritime routes.
NL asked if there are any plans to use the distance tool to calculate greenhouse gas emissions and expressed concerns for the implications this might have for large ports.
DE also expressed their interest in testing the new version of the port distance tool, while PT wondered how much time would be available to the countries for the testing phase.
Eurostat replied that the introduction of a buffer had indeed been considered when developing the new methodology. However, it was decided to be both more accurate and more efficient to flag all routes intersecting land and correct these manually.
Eurostat also pointed out that the function of the tool is currently limited to providing distances between ports in kilometres and nautical miles. As a future development, it could be feasible to include for instance the length of each maritime route over each country’s territorial water.
Eurostat emphasised that the goal of the distance tool project is to create a harmonised and transparent port-to-port distance matrix to be used as a basis for calculation of tonne-kilometres (TKMs) and passenger-kilometres (PKMs) for maritime transport. If this distance matrix is to be used for emission calculations the methodology for attributing maritime emissions to countries will have to be agreed with the reporting countries in the context of the maritime emissions project. However, the current “best practice” models for estimating maritime emissions are based on using AIS data for actual vessel movements and not TKMs/PKMs for maritime transport.
Finally, Eurostat indicated that the new port distances should be disseminated as part of the WebILSE application on the Eurostat website by the end of 2014, a timeline which should provide the interested countries with about three months to test the improvements.
Conclusion
– Eurostat will invite all reporting countries to test the new version of the port distance calculation tool on voluntary basis following the meeting.