Executive summary
KEY FINDINGS
- The EU Ports Strategy, adopted in March 2026, provides a relevant strategic direction, but implementation is now the central challenge. Its effectiveness will depend on translating broad objectives into coordinated action, investment and operational capabilities across a highly diverse European port system.
- European port competitiveness is multidimensional. Beyond cargo volumes and transhipment, it depends on connectivity, logistics and industrial activities, technological capabilities, investment conditions and resilience, requiring a broader evidence base for EU policy.
- The transformation of ports creates closely interconnected opportunities and risks. Digitalisation, the energy transition and stronger hinterland integration can improve competitiveness and sustainability, but also require substantial investment, interoperability, cybersecurity and predictable long-term conditions.
- The strategic role of ports increasingly extends beyond commercial transport. Resilience, energy security, crisis preparedness and military mobility need to be considered alongside commercial functions, through proportionate approaches reflecting different port roles and risks.
- Coordination and proportionality are recurring requirements across all policy areas. Implementation needs to reflect differences between ports and strengthen coordination across policies, governance levels and public and private actors; these needs become more urgent under geopolitical fragmentation and stronger international competition.
The European port system and policy context
EU ports form an extensive and diverse system that is central to European trade and connectivity. Beyond transport, they support major logistics, industrial and energy activities and connect maritime flows with European supply chains and inland networks. The system ranges from major gateways and transhipment hubs to numerous small and medium-sized ports and specialised industrial, energy and passenger ports. Consequently, challenges and investment needs vary considerably according to port size, function, geographical position and strategic role.
The EU Ports Strategy, published by the European Commission in March 2026, reflects the expanding role of ports within European policy, increasingly recognising them as strategic infrastructure for competitiveness, security and resilience, the energy transition, digitalisation and connectivity. This study assesses these challenges, examines how the Strategy addresses them and identifies areas where further action could support its implementation.
Main findings
Overall, the study finds the EU Ports Strategy timely, relevant and broadly aligned with the evidence reviewed. Its main added value lies in providing an integrated strategic direction across competitiveness, safety and security, sustainability and energy transition, digitalisation and hinterland connectivity. The principal challenge is therefore not the strategic direction itself, but its effective and proportionate implementation across a highly diverse port system.
Competitiveness is broader than cargo volumes and transhipment. It concerns the ability of EU ports to attract shipping services, logistics and industrial activities, investment and technological capabilities. Regulatory asymmetries, permitting, energy and grid conditions, state aid and access to funding are important factors requiring greater consideration in EU policy. Transhipment leakage remains a credible concern, particularly for Mediterranean ports exposed to nearby non-EU competition. The international cases also show that there is no single competitiveness model: rather than replicating non-EU ports, the opportunity lies in strengthening coordination, interoperability and innovation deployment.
Security and resilience increasingly concern interconnected physical, digital and operational systems. Cybersecurity threats, organised crime, critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and geopolitical risks can affect ports and wider logistics chains, while dual-use infrastructure creates additional requirements for resilience and crisis preparedness. Existing EU instruments provide a substantial policy basis; the main challenge is achieving consistent operational capabilities across ports with different resources, governance and strategic roles.
Ports are important enablers of the energy transition, but are not the main drivers of alternative-fuel uptake. They provide infrastructure, land, planning, coordination and safety arrangements, while demand, supply and investment are largely shaped by shipping, fuel and market actors and the wider regulatory environment. Uncertainty over future fuel pathways can delay investment, highlighting the importance of predictable long-term policy signals while retaining technological flexibility.
Digitalisation increasingly connects ports with wider transport and supply chains, but also creates new dependencies and security risks. Digital technologies can improve planning, automation, coordination and end-to-end visibility, while greater connectivity increases exposure to cyber incidents and cascading disruption. Adoption in EU ports remains uneven, making interoperability, secure data governance, investment capacity and scaling up proven solutions important challenges.
Port-hinterland connectivity is central to competitiveness, decarbonisation and resilience, but remains uneven. Formal TEN-T connection does not necessarily ensure sufficient capacity, interoperability, multimodal integration or alternative routing. The analysis points to corridor-level planning and monitoring, integrated investment and, where strategically relevant, proportionate consideration of resilience and dual-use requirements.
Key policy recommendations
Drawing on the study findings and interviews with a broad range of port-sector stakeholders, the study develops targeted policy recommendations to support implementation of the EU Ports Strategy.
- On competitiveness, the EU should strengthen the evidence base and monitoring of European port competitiveness, including through a robust and stakeholder-supported methodology to assess potential business leakage and competitiveness impacts associated with the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime Regulation (EU) 2023/1805. This should be complemented by stronger consideration of port competitiveness in EU policy processes and a concrete agenda for deploying port innovation and strengthening technological leadership.
- On security and resilience, the EU should strengthen implementation capacity in relation to cybersecurity, critical-infrastructure resilience and organised crime, supporting consistent application of existing requirements, common risk assessment and preparedness, and stronger cooperation across ports and wider logistics chains.
- On the energy transition, EU policy should translate long-term decarbonisation objectives into predictable investment conditions for ports, while supporting international alignment through the IMO and recognising the uncertainties surrounding future fuel demand, supply and infrastructure requirements.
- On digitalisation, greater emphasis should be placed on scaling and replicating proven solutions and strengthening interoperable data exchange. This could include dedicated scale-up programmes, peer learning and knowledge sharing, alongside a stronger EU governance framework for interoperable port, hinterland and supply-chain data.
- On hinterland connectivity, the EU should develop a common monitoring framework to assess whether ports are effectively integrated into multimodal and resilient hinterland corridors. EU funding could strategically support integrated port-access investments, while resilience and dual-use considerations could be mainstreamed into the appraisal of strategically relevant port-hinterland corridors.
The study tests the recommendations against four scenarios to 2040, differentiated by the pace of decarbonisation and the level of geopolitical cooperation. All recommendations remain relevant across the scenarios, but their urgency is greatest under geopolitical fragmentation, while more cooperative scenarios shift the focus towards investment, technology deployment and market opportunities.
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