Barcelona port traffic project

Barcelona Port Authority won the ESPO Award 2022 in recognition of its role in maritime passenger transport incuding enhancing the city connectivity and bringing added value to the local community.

“We are very honoured with this award, especially since it is an award coming from ESPO,” said Santiago Garcia Milà, deputy director general of the Port of Barcelona. 

”We consider winning this award as an appreciation and support for our strategy which aims at combining sustainability with taking care of the passengers that come and leave from our port.”

Community project

Barcelona Port Authority won the ESPO Award 2022 for its project Your Port Opens Up Again. The project involves the deeper integration of the old port of Barcelona and the city through the completion of the reorganisation of passenger traffic.

This includes transferring one ferry and two cruise terminals from the old port area to a wharf located in the commercial port exclusively dedicated to passengers and relocating a multipurpose terminal in the commercial port.

“One of the major current European port investment projects, it is admirable in that it faithfully follows a plan since the Olympic Games of 1992. It draws together numerous public and private actors, it invests in green technologies to minimise externalities, it responds to the wishes of its host city by giving back valuable waterfront space and solving major congestion problems,” said Dimitrios Theologitis, chairman of the ESPO award jury.

This year the projects of Barcelona Port Authority (Spain), Tallinn Port Authority (Estonia), Ceuta Port Authority (Spain) and ADRIJO Network – Adriatic Ports Cultural Network (Croatia, Italia) were shortlisted for the 14th edition of the ESPO awards.

The ESPO Award was awarded by Magda Kopczynska, director for innovative and sustainable mobility in the European Commission’s department for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), during the traditional ceremony and dinner at the Bozar in Brussels, which was attended by 170 guests.