Challenges and opportunities aplenty for EU ports

Europe’s seaports would be affected by changes to almost every policy area discussed in the maritime green paper.

Ports are listed in the paper as one of the EU maritime sectors with most potential for economic growth. Already. 3.5 billion tonnes of cargo and 350 million passengers travel through European seaports each year.

Ports harbour the EU fishing industry, struggling to cope with declining fish stocks and wide-ranging reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy.

They stand to benefit from investments to improve maritime transport, including the ongoing project to create ‘motorways of the sea’.

Nine-tenths of the EU’s external trade passes through European docks so ports have a role to play in international commerce.

Ports could be at the heart of the tourist industry, with many holidaying Europeans said by the Commission to enjoy "the bustle of fishing ports".

Sea ports pose several monitoring and security challenges ranging from smuggling and people-trafficking to pollution.

They are likely to be increasingly vulnerable to climate change-linked storms and hurricanes.

The challenge of developing a maritime policy to address all these issues is huge. A proposed directive covering just port services had to be withdrawn last year, when MEPs and governments failed to find a workable legal base. A consultation on how to replace the failed directive is scheduled to end in June, at the same time as the maritime policy consultation.

The European Sea Ports Organisation (Espo) has warned that it is of the "utmost importance" to make sure that policies that come out of the two debates do not contradict each other.

The Commission has singled out balancing environmental and economic demands as another major challenge for EU ports. But Espo is asking the Commission not to take its environmental concerns too far. An Espo contribution to the consultation warns that "uncertainty caused by environmental legislation and NIMBY [not in my back yard] attitudes" could delay the start of port projects by more than ten years.

Europe’s seaports would be affected by changes to almost every policy area discussed in the maritime green paper.