1. The key role of ports in Maritime Spatial
Planning and Blue Growth
MSP Shipping Conference, Athens, 6 June 2014
Dr Antonis Michail, Senior Advisor, ESPO

2. European Sea Ports Organisation
Founded in 1993
Represents European seaport authorities
Members from EU and neighbouring
countries
Secretariat in Brussels
Recognised counterpart of EU institutions
A lobby and a knowledge network

3. Ports – Main pillars of Blue Growth
1200 European ports, 329 TEN-T
European ports directly employ around 1.5 million people.
In Europe, each additional million tons of port throughput
creates 300 new jobs
74 % of goods imported and exported transit through the
seaports
2011: 200 million passengers passed through EU ports

4. MSP: Integrated management of
activities at sea
Coexistence of different
activities
Increased pressure on marine
space
Imperatives of environmental
protection, safety, security
Key success factor:
cooperation / bringing the
different stakeholders and
interests together

5. ESPO welcomes the MSP initiative
All Member States should have planning processes in
place to support the sound management of their
marine areas
Cross border cooperation is important
It is imperative that shipping and port industries are
involved in the spatial planning of Europe's seas as
key stakeholders

6. MSP should take into account
Current shipping routes
Cruise and ferry routes
Offshore building and maintenance
Future projections and respective developments (e.g.
50% growth in maritime transport by 2030)
Port development plans
Environmental and safety and security considerations

7. How ports can help
Ports are important links in the transport chain
 Physical: Between land and sea
 Transport: Logistic nodes, bringing the transport modes together
 Economic: Between public and private sector
 Societal: between local communities and commercial activities
 Environmental context: Ports grant their license to operate and to
grow from the local communities
As such ports have experiences to share when it comes to
bringing together various interests

8. Successful bottom-up initiatives

9. Conclusions
Ports are engines of blue growth but they clearly understand
that they have to share space, use, responsibilities. They know
they operate in an economic, societal and environmental
context.
European ports assume both public and economic
responsibilities and are ideally placed to meet the various
challenges of both market forces and society.
Ports are looking forward to cooperate and share their
experiences in the context of MSP

10. Thank you for your attention!
MSP Shipping Conference, Athens, 6 June 2014
Dr Antonis Michail, Senior Advisor, ESPO
antonis.michail@espo.be
www.espo.be / www.ecoports.com