European Commissioner Joe Borg told a conference this week that progress has been made on the promotion of shore-side power for ships.
"The promotion of shore-side electricity is an effective way to tackle local pollution concerns," Borg told the European Cruise Council 2009 Industry Conference on Tuesday.
Directive 2005/33/EC - which will require ships at berth to burn only 0.1% sulphur fuel from January 2010 - allows the use shoreside electricity as an alternative.
At present, such facilities are only available at a handful of ports in Europe, and few ships are equipped to make use of of them.
"I am optimistic that we will soon get the required impetus for investments to make shore-side electricity a reality in many ports, including in neighbouring countries in the southern Mediterranean," Borg said in his speech this week.
"The Commission will address the issue of taxation, and the relevant standardisation bodies are close to an agreed standard for the ship-to-shore connections," he added.
A study by environmental and engineering consultancy Entec UK for the European Commission in 2005 suggested that there comes a point when using shore-side electricity becomes more cost-effective for a ship than using fuel to generate its own power.
Entec predicted that using shore-side power may be financially preferable for ships that would otherwise have to use low-sulphur marine distillates while at berth.