Shipping - CDU still criticizes the lack of port strategy of the traffic lights
The CDU/CSU in the Bundestag accuses the federal government of a lack of commitment to promoting German seaports. The promise made in November in response to a parliamentary question to adopt the national port strategy urgently awaited by the coastal states and the port industry in the cabinet before the end of the year was once again not kept, said Christoph Ploß, the CDU/CSU chairman of the transport committee and Hamburg CDU MP, to the German Press Agency.
The port industry and the coastal states of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are demanding a significant increase in federal funding for the seaports. Due to increased costs, 400 million euros are needed each year for infrastructure alone.
The strategy was originally due to be presented at the National Maritime Conference in September. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz also said at the meeting in Bremen: "It is important to me that it is adopted by the cabinet this year."
Meanwhile, the Port of Hamburg, Germany's largest seaport, is falling further and further behind in international competition, said Ploß. Yet maritime shipping is by far the most climate-friendly means of transportation. "Despite this, the traffic light coalition is once again breaking a promise to the public and will not be presenting a strategy for German ports this year."
Both the traffic light coalition and the red-green Hamburg Senate were not tackling obvious problems such as increasing silt, the overdue expansion of hinterland connections and the huge need to renovate the port consistently enough, criticized the head of the Hamburg CDU regional group. "Instead, we now need clear, financially backed commitments for investments in the dilapidated quay walls and a silt concept for the Elbe that is supported by all the states involved and the federal government."
Two thirds of German foreign trade is handled via the seaports and around 70 percent of energy requirements are covered by the German ports, said Ploß. "The Port of Hamburg in particular ensures prosperity, employment and security of supply throughout Germany - that's why the coalition with the traffic lights must finally take action."
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Source: www.stern.de
