EU Mobility Strategy must include seaports, says ESPO

Although the voice for European seaports welcomes the strategy’s recognition of ports as clean energy hubs, it wants to see a more specific strategy to assist seaports in that role.

“Both the Green Deal, the Next Generation EU and the Open Strategic Autonomy approach for trade are crucial strategies for enhancing Europe’s growth, future and resilience in the world,” said Isabelle Ryckbost, ESPO’s Secretary General.

“We now look forward to further discussing with the Commission what is really needed to assist and enable ports in Europe to play their role as engines of growth and recovery as best as they can.”

Port strategy

ESPO argues that the strategy should include support for the necessary infrastructure and facilities in seaports for the supply and transport of new energies, in particular hydrogen, recognition for the role of pipelines and more in general stronger synergies between transport and energy policies.

Ms Ryckbost said that building a zero-emission port will need to involve the shared and combined efforts of all transport, industry and energy stakeholders in the port ecosystem.

Moreover, achieving the zero-emission ambition will require significant private and public investments in ports and relevant infrastructure, which cannot be borne by individual port authorities alone.

Whereas the Commission aims at making Europe’s transport system resilient, viewing a coordinated European approach to connectivity and transport activity as essential to strengthen EU’s strategic autonomy and resilience, “the strategy lacks a holistic vision on how to strengthen the role of ports as engines of growth and recovery.”

Given the diversity of European ports, ESPO believes that designing port-specific roadmaps combined with well-working monitoring and certification tools such as the EcoPorts tools and the exchange of best practices, is the best and most efficient way to reach this goal.

Download the ESPO Position Paper on Mobility Strategy