Malta Maritime Forum warns EU ‘green’ law driving business to North Africa 

The Malta Maritime Forum (MMF) warned that EU climate legislation is backfiring spectacularly, damaging the competitiveness of southern European ports without even reducing carbon emissions in European waters.

The MMF recently held intensive high-levels talks in Brussels to sound the alarm about the initial impact of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), which obliges shipping companies to pay for their carbon dioxide emissions on voyages involving EU ports.

In meetings with EU institutions, industry associations and Maltese MEPs, the MMF warned that this ‘green’ law is failing to deliver a reduction of carbon in European waters since it is unable to enforce the directive in North African countries.

“As a result, transhipment business is largely shifting to new and expanded transhipment hubs that have mushroomed along the coast of North Africa to capture the business of cargo carriers that are rerouting from EU ports to avoid ETS requirements,” it said.

It warned that southern EU ports now risk becoming feeder hubs playing a secondary role to extra-EU ports where global cargo will become principally transhipped, an effect that goes completely against the European Commission’s own Port Strategy. 

MMF said it produced hard facts on the substantial growth being registered in non-EU ports at the expense of EU transhipment hubs, adding that the shift has led to increased feeder traffic, paradoxically boosting overall emissions rather than curbing them.

“This mounting practice is creating disproportionate economic risks for small island state economies like Malta’s which rely heavily on global maritime carriers to generate jobs and export-led growth,” it warned. 

“With high ETS costs and a relatively minute domestic container volume, the island risks losing direct calls from major shipping lines. If cargo bound for Malta is unloaded at neighbouring non-EU ports, Malta’s connectivity and competitiveness are undermined, jeopardising sectors such as manufacturing and logistics.”

They called for a temporary freeze on EU ETS and FuelEU for maritime transport until the establishment of a global decarbonisation measure among other measures.