Member Article

MEP receives EU support on cruise industry campaign

North East MEP Martin Callanan has met with the EU Competition Commissioner in his campaign to secure a level playing field for the North East’s cruise industry at a key meeting in Strasbourg.

In 2007, Liverpool City Council received more than £20 million of taxpayers money to develop a new cruise terminal, on the premise that they would not compete for lucrative turnaround calls.

However, Liverpool appealed to the UK government to have this restriction lifted and in May 2012 the UK Department for Transport confirmed that Liverpool could host cruise ships provided if it repaid £8.8m in state aid used to build the terminal as a lump-sum (or £12.6 million over 15 years) and that state aid clearance was granted by the European Commission.

Mr. Callanan has led the campaign to secure a fair outcome for other ports and has argued that Liverpool must first pay back all of the public money it received before the restrictions are lifted. He requested a meeting with the European Commissioner responsible for state aids, Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission, to discuss the issue. South East MEP Daniel Hannan was also present at the meeting to highlight similar concerns on behalf of Southampton.

Following the meeting, Martin Callanan said: “I’m very grateful to Commissioner Almunia for meeting me and others involved in this campaign. He was very much aware of the history of this issue and was extremely interested in the latest developments.

“It was a positive meeting and Commissioner Almunia was insistent that the appropriate rules are applied and adhered to. I want to ensure a level playing field for all concerned and that means Liverpool cannot happily accept taxpayers’ money which came with strict conditions, and then simply disregard them later.

“The Commissioner has requested more information on this case from the UK government into its dealings with Liverpool which have resulted in cruise ships now operating turnaround calls on Merseyside despite not having been granted permission from the EU.”

The cruise industry is worth millions of pounds and supports hundreds of jobs in the North East, and Mr Callanan believes that Liverpool should develop its own cruise business in a fair way - which means returning all the public money it has already received.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .