ESPO congratulates the new Commissioners and wishes the Commission College a good start on 1 December
29 November 2024
The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) would like to congratulate Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the new Commission college upon their appointment by the European Council yesterday, after the consent given by the European Parliament on 27 November. Europe’s ports wish the College of Commissioners led by Mrs von der Leyen all the best for a good start on 1st December.
Europe is facing important challenges. ESPO supports the main ambitions, many of the messages and good intentions that have been expressed by Mrs von Der Leyen in her priorities and the accompanying mission letters and believes that the three supporting reports of Mr Letta, Mr Draghi and Mr Niinisto give the new Commission the right input to fuel the discussions on future policy.
Europe’s ports believe that the overall plea for strengthening Europe’s competitiveness should be translated in a port strategy that enables ports to fully play their role as nodes of transport, hubs of energy and partners in the energy transition, clusters of industry and circular economy and important pillars in strengthening Europe’s resilience and military preparedness. Additional rules that undermine the level playing field among ports in Europe and/or are putting Europe’s ports in an uneven competition with the ports in the EU neighbouring countries should be avoided.
To play their comprehensive and multifaceted role, ports are facing massive investments. A recently published ESPO study shows that ports have 80 billion EUR investment needs over the next ten years (excluding the private investments that will follow the port investments made and the costs of maintenance). Europe’s ports urge the Commission to continue and further strengthen the dedicated European transport infrastructure funding instrument, currently known as the Connecting Europe facility (CEF), and tune it better to ports and their actors’ needs. Such instrument is the only effective way to ensure the completion of a seamless and well-functioning, state-of-the-art European Transport Network, which serves as the backbone and enabler of Europe’s internal market and its ambitions. A well-functioning transport network, including state-of-the-art ports, is also fundamental for strengthening Europe’s decarbonisation and resilience agenda and for enhancing its military preparedness.
ESPO is looking forward to start the reflection on a European Port Strategy with Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, and the different Commissioners and Directorate Generals involved in this exercise.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism
Europe’s ports see the upcoming strategy as a unique opportunity to see the multifaceted role of ports considered by the different policy areas and hope this can lead to an adequate supporting framework and proper understanding of and response to ports and their specificities. Again, ports are ready to be the engines of and for Europe’s growth, but hope they can be fuelled by both the financial and non-financial support they need. In Spring 2024, ESPO published a Memorandum “A net-zero, smart, resilient and competitive Europe: Europe’s ports are part of the solution” which outlines the priorities of Europe’s ports for 2024-2029.
ESPO looks forward to work together with the new Commission team in an open and constructive way.
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