The European Commission decided on December 10th, not to raise any objections to Germany's plan to support the construction of a new port in Wilhelmshaven. The Commission found that the measures adopted by the German authorities are compatible with the Common market.

The States of Bremen and Lower Saxony will finance – through publicly-owned entities JIB and JWPR – the basic infrastructure (maritime access and connections to land transport networks) and the infrastructure necessary for the construction of a new maritime container terminal in Wilhelmshaven on the mouth of the Jade River. The container terminal will be financed, constructed, operated and maintained by a selected terminal operator.

The Commission concludes that at the level of JIB and JWPR the public financing of the construction of the basic infrastructure and the terminal related infrastructure is compatible with the Common market pursuant to the EC Treaty. The State intervention in the present case is indeed completely in line with the objectives to develop European ports in the framework of the European Transport Policy.

Furthermore, the Commission considers that the 40-year concession agreement for the construction and operation of the terminal does not incorporate any State aid elements because it has been awarded on the basis of a Europe-wide open, transparent and non-discriminatory public tender. The European tender procedure took 16 months  before concluding in early 2006 with the naming  of EUROGATE as operator . The project in currently in a construction phase, and has itself originated some public tender processes such as for construction works for lighthouse which is currently opened, or the contract awarded in June for the construction of quay infrastructure.

At the level of port users, the Commission believes that the notified measures do not lead to any State aid to port users as long as the access to the infrastructure is made on equal and non-discriminatory terms.

On the basis of the above considerations, the Commission decided not to raise objections to the notified measures.

Wilhelmshaven's JadeWeserPort

In June 2002, the States of Lower Saxony and Bremen have launched one of largest infrastructure projects to be seen in northern Germany for 50 years: the JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven - Germany’s only deep-sea port for the future generation of container ships. The first of these highly modern jumbo container ships will call on the JadeWeserPort in October 2011 when the terminal enters service.

The JadeWeserPort will be the most easterly deep-sea port in the European North Range (Le Havre - Hamburg).  The annual projected handling capacity of the JadeWeserPort is estimated at 2.7 million TEU p.a..  Approximately two thirds of all container traffic is expected for transhipment via the Wilhelmshaven Hub to the European market, in particular to Scandinavia, the new European Union States around the Baltic and Russia.  Therefore, JadeWeserPort will serve as an important link within the Trans-European “Motorways of the Seas” network.