Portopia: Driving Force Of Sustainability

portopiaPortopia aims at creating an integrated knowledge base and management system of port performance to serve the industry’s stakeholders in improving the sustainability and competitiveness of the European Port System.

Portopia has two main objectives: to support the European Port Industry with meaningful performance data to increase individual port and port transport system performance, and to support policy formulation and monitor policy implementation. Portopia aims at creating an integrated knowledge base and management system of port performance to serve the industry’s stakeholders in improving the sustainability and competitiveness of the European Port System. To that end, different domains will be linked such as: Market trends and structure, Socio-economic performance, Environment and occupational health and safety and security, Logistic chain and operational efficiency, Governance and finance and user perceptions of quality.

Inland ports will also be covered in the project as PORTOPIA aims to create an integrated and balanced view on port performance. Performance will be linked to the industry’s and the European Commission’s policy objectives in diverse areas. After 4 years, the project should result in the creation of a self-supporting and sustainable organisation at the service of the industry’s stakeholders. An efficient and sustainable port system is an important facilitator and driver for economic growth. European ports account for 37% of intra-European trade volumes, and play a key role to link European markets and industries to global trade networks with a share of 90% of external trade.

On top of that, each year, ca. 400 million passengers transit through European ports. Mr Dimitrios Theologitis (European Commission – Head of the Ports Policy and Inland Waterways Unit) said: “In recent years we have witnessed an impressive transformation of the role of ports in the transport chain.

Adaptation to multimodality, introduction of advanced ICT systems, impressive changes in the port-ship interface and cutting edge logistics requirements are putting more and more pressure in ports.

The PORTOPIA project is meant to document this progress and shows the strong commitment of the EU in supporting innovation and word level class performance of a sector – ports – which is of key importance for the competitiveness of European businesses and the well-being of citizens”

http://www.portopia.eu