The contribution to the functioning of the domestic market for maritime transport aid devices

Maritime transport has been in 1992 the subject of measures allowing shipowners to access to the freedom to provide services on domestic routes in the Member States. Over the course of enlargements, the Union has lost its continental configuration to integrate a growing number of islands, which highlights the importance of maritime transport for the free movement of people and goods within the internal market. In addition, the geographic, economic and demographic situation of these islands is heterogeneous: some people are living in Orkney, millions of others are living in Sicily... Despite the diversity of island territories from the North Sea to the Aegean Sea, the conditions for the implementation of the freedom to provide maritime transport service by Council Regulation N°3577/92 are identical, despite the multifaceted reality of the concerned markets. However, the measures adopted by the Union, based on the conditions for the allocation of the aid in connection with public service missions to the islands, particularly in the context of an SGEI, have restrictive effects both on the conditions for competition between shipowners, and on trade exchange between the Member States. Despite the inconsistency of State aid with companies, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) allows derogations on which the Commission can play. In the maritime sector, the aid compatible with the TFEU is about shipbuilding, safety, crew training, amongst others. A distinction must be made between these sectoral aid and individual aid as regards transport line. When correlated with service contracts or with public service obligations established on predetermined paths, the aid system acts as a non-tariff barriers to trade, which structure maritime traffic and impact the functioning of the market by influencing national origin of goods for consumers living in island regions. The Commission analyses the markets and the compatibility of aid. However, the predictive activity leads the Commission to influence maritime markets. An analysis of the decisions taken by the Commission on aid to maritime transport shows that it uses a line by line analysis which brings a restriction on the geographic market. Having established in 2005 and renewed in 2011 the exemption from notification of public service compensation, and having practiced insufficient analysis of the maritime market, the Commission denies controlling the real conditions of maritime traffic goods. However, if the Commission exempts from notification the main part of aid in favor of SGEI shipping, and if its market analyses are insufficient, it is ultimately the ability of the EU Courts to arbitrate between the public interest of the Member States and the common interests of the Union, which, based on the principle of limited control, is questioned.