EU Transport policy: Short Sea Shipping and Motorways of the Sea

Short Sea Shipping is a logistics concept performing the sea leg of door-to-door freight transport of containers, trailers, general cargo and bulk within Europe and with countries geographically close to Europe. It is a crucial initiative to make transportation of goods in Europe more efficient and environmentally friendly. The Commission adopted a Mid-Term Review of the Programme for the Promotion of Short Sea Shipping, which evaluates the results of the 14 actions that were introduced in 2003 to enhance the efficiency of Short Sea Shipping in Europe.

The 14 actions introduced in the original Promotion Programme appear to have been well chosen and work on all of them should continue in co-operation with Member States, industry and the European Shortsea Network. The actions include uniform reporting formalities for ships to enter or depart from EU ports; guidance for successful Short Sea Promotion Centres which offer advice on the use of Short Sea Shipping; the elimination of obstacles that hinder the development of Short Sea Shipping.

The Mid-Term Review proposes that some of the 14 original measures should be retargeted in order to work towards and making the first high-quality Motorways of the Sea operational in Europe by 2010; examine the possibility of extending the scope of short-sea promotion towards the promotion of multimodal solutions in inland transport as part of the overall logistics chain; improve the integration of the mode in the multimodal logistics supply chain to coincide with the modern image that Short Sea Shipping has already acquired.

Further information: Short Sea Shipping