Date: 12 December 2003
The EU-backed Marco Polo programme, which subsidises non-road transport modes, has attracted significant interest from Irish companies in the freight transport, maritime and logistics sector. Through the grant scheme, which closed on 10th December 2003, Irish companies had the opportunity to avail of European funds for the development of new short sea shipping services. If successful, a number of the Irish submissions could potentially increase direct trade with mainland Europe, introduce more environmentally efficient sea freight services and reduce congestion on Irish and UK and European roadways. Grant-aid is available for new services in the non-road freight market to a maximum of 30 per cent.
The objective of the Marco Polo programme is to contribute to shifting the annual increase of international road freight to short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways. This means a 12 billion tonne km shift per year. The Commission has earmarked a programme budget of €75m for the EU 15 over the next 4 years. Funding under the scheme is provided for three different types of actions - Modal Shift, Catalyst and Common Learning.
The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) has assisted 10 Marco Polo proposals to date, seven of which have been submitted under the first call. The proposals comprise a mixture of projects under both the Common Learning and Modal shift categories of actions.
The proposals come from a range of organisations including port authorities, academic institutions, IT suppliers and ro-ro and lo-lo operators. The modal shift proposals involve the development of new intermodal routes linking Ireland directly to Europe and the concept of reducing traffic using the UK landbridge was a common theme. The common learning actions include networking and training projects on a pan-European basis.
The outcome of the current batch of Irish applications will be decided during the first quarter of 2004, with notifications of funding awards expected from the end of April 2004.
The results of the 1st call are expected from the commission in early 2004. There will be a second call next year.
Ends.
Note to editors:
1. Modal Shift Actions: A modal shift action is defined as any action that directly and immediately shifts freight from road to short sea shipping, rail, inland waterways or a combination of modes of transport in which road journeys are as short as possible. They shouldbe robust, but not necessarily innovative: - just shift freight off the road.
2. Catalyst Actions: The catalyst action should lead to an actual, measurable and sustainable modal shift from road to short sea shipping, inland waterways or rail. A good example would be a Motorway of the Sea project. Under this type of action, structural market barriers in European freight transport should be overcome through a highly innovative concept: - causing a real breakthrough.
3. Common learning actions: The common learning action should enhance knowledge in the freight logistics sector and foster advanced methods and procedures of co-operation in the freight market. Under this type of action improvement of co-operation and sharing of know-how is subsidised: mutual training – coping with an increasingly complex transport and logistics market.
The IMDO is Ireland’s state agency dedicated to the marketing, promotion and development of the shipping service sector. It has been recently appointed the additional function of Short Sea Promotion Centre in line with EU policy in this area. Short Sea Shipping is an environmentally friendly initiative to reduce the number of road miles, reduce bottlenecks and promote inter-modality and regional development of Short Sea routes.