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Map of the Week - Traffic of goods by port

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Map of the Week - Traffic of goods by port

The European Commission has launched a call for new members to join the European Ports Forum (EPF) subgroup on Blue Ports. The EPF was set up in 2017 by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (‘DG MOVE’) to exchange information and provide advice on port related matters. The sub-group “Ports as hubs for a sustainable Blue Economy” aims to discuss and make recommendations on issues surrounding the evolving role of ports in a changing industrial landscape and how ports can become dynamic nodes for blue economy clusters and blue innovation ecosystems. This EPF sub-group will consist of up to 35 members from a wide range of stakeholder groups which may include European Member States’ authorities, other public authorities, organisations, associations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), universities and research institutes active in the blue economy.

Europe has three ports in the list of the world’s 15 biggest ports: Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp. [1]  European Union (EU) ports are very heterogeneous, with significant differences in their size, type, organisation and in how they are connected to their hinterlands.[2] In 2018, more than 410 million passengers aboard cruises and ferries embarked and disembarked  in  EU  ports and the total weight of goods transported to/from the main EU ports by short sea shipping amounted to 1.8 billion tonnes. [2] Port activities employed 549.3 thousand people. [3]

The reduction of the environmental and climate impacts of shipping and port activities will have an important role in reaching the objectives of the European Green Deal. A series of initiatives to reduce the footprint of ports is addressed in the context of Green Ports. [2]

Are you involved in the Blue Economy? Learn about the BlueInvest Day 2021 that will take place on 26 January 2021.

Zoom in the Map of the Week and click on ports to learn about traffic of goods by port!

Access the map

The data in this map are provided by Eurostat.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/maritime/infographics_en

[2] https://blueindicators.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2020_06_BlueEconomy-2020-LD_FINAL-corrected-web-acrobat-pro.pdf   

[3] https://blueindicators.ec.europa.eu/access-online-dashboard