Legal aspects of the development of the seaport policy in the EU

The development of specific law relating to the sea ports in the framework of European integration has been very slow in getting started as well as in its development. Fundamental freedoms of the EC Treaty (freedom of establishment free movement of labor goods and services) as well as provisions on competition apply to the port services sector. Nearly fifty years after the establishment of the community there is still no specific legislative framework relating to the provision of port services which makes it the only transport services sector where in the case of certain problems with respect to application of the above-mentioned freedoms decides on the principle of the case to case. Port services market is characterized by complexity and diversity of national and other applicable regulations as well as the heterogeneous nature of port services and port diversity (in terms of status ownership management types functional and geographic characteristics). Therefore the adoption of a legal framework at EU level that would establish ground rules applicable in all ports of the Union is extremely important.