Bruxelles april 28th 2010 – The ports of Koper, Ravenna, Trieste and Venice, hosted by Mr. Cancian MP, Ms. Serracchiani MP and Ms.Fajion MP to the European Parliament in Bruxelles, presented N.A.P.A. (North Adriatic Ports Association) and rendered official the realization of the seaport access to markets that the European Union itself had requested.
North Adriatic maritime gateways undertook formally, in front of EU, to cooperate in the territorial promotion and development of maritime and logistics activity through the Northern Adriatic . In accordance with EU guidelines, which promote the creation of a multi-port hub, the route taken by ports last march with the formation of NAPA goes on. Target: to appear with greater strength and determination in international markets and to make the North Adriatic the European logistics platform for freight traffic to Central and Eastern Europe countries.
The meeting in Bruxelles represented the chance to present several development projects, some of which already under construction (or under project), which affect the Adriatic ports, whose total amount was 3.4 billion euros, and which foresee the participation of private funds for 2.2 billion and of public funds for 1.2 billion euros. The aim is to ensure competitiveness to ports. Among the current projects, here are some examples: the logistic platform of Trieste and the renovation of the piers (€ 642 million), in Venice the Motorways of the Sea Terminal and the Container Terminal with distripark (€ 850 million), the new IIIrd pier and the container terminal in Koper (€ 500 million) and in Ravenna the dredging activity and the development of the railways infrastructures (€ 470 million).
Indeed, the ports of North Adriatic are currently accomplishing a series of infrastructure with the aim of developing their excellences, already present in ports, to become the benchmark for their productive basin, and furthermore an infrastructure for freight coming from the Far East to Central-Eastern Europe and viceversa. Venice for the handling of containers, general cargo and project cargo, Ravenna for specialized dry bulk shipping services (baked clay and cereals) , Trieste for liquid bulks (oils and similar), and Koper for containers, cargo of new cars and lumber. Also cruise industry and ferry (freight and passengers) are among the excellences of the Adriatic ports: Venice is the first “home port” of the Mediterranean with 1.9 million cruise passengers, while ferry traffic from Trieste to Turkey, from Ravenna to South Italy and Greece are highly valuable and Koper is willing to achieve the goal of 60 cruise ships calls in 2010.
The revision of the TEN-T networks ports and the connections of ports and hinterlands are the keys to the development of European ports: N.A.P.A. Association contributes to the competitiveness of European logistics system, to the “decarbonization” of transport and, more generally, to achieve the objectives outlined in the strategy EU 2020.
As regards the “decarbonization”, for instance, a trip from Port Said () to Central Europe, passing through a North Adriatic port, produces143 kg of CO2 per TEU, while a trip fromPort Said viaHamburg would produce188 kg of CO2 per TEU. Also the transit time is more competitive, since it is 8 days via Rotterdam and just 2 days via North Adriatic.
