Victor Schoenmakers starts second term as Chairman of ESPO

“I am very honoured by this vote of confidence”, said Mr. Schoenmakers, “It is a pleasure to see ESPO growing and its impact increasing. It is my ambition to continue on this route and further raise the professional profile and credibility of our organisation. To achieve this, I believe it is essential to exploit the know-how that is present in our membership in a pro-active way. Our initiatives in the field of port governance, environmental management and societal integration show that this is the right way forward.”

The General Assembly also renewed the mandates of Manuel Gómez Martín (Puertos del Estado, Spain) and Julian Skelnik (Port of Gdansk, Poland) as Vice-Chairmen and adopted the organisation’s work programme for 2011.

“Next year will be decisive in strategic terms for the future of European transport policy with a new White Paper and a proposal for revised TEN-T guidelines”, concluded the newly elected Chairman, “We expect that ports will play a significant role in both and are ready to further elaborate our views on what the port sector can contribute.”

ESPO published today also its annual report which gives an overview of the activities of the organisation in the past year. It can be downloaded from the ESPO website.

Tonight, ESPO will be celebrating the second edition of its Award on Societal Integration of Ports. Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas will announce the winner of the Award at the Town Hall of Brussels. Shortlisted candidates are the ports of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Helsinki, Koper, Marseilles and Ponta Delgada. ESPO News will report on the result of the competition tomorrow.