Robert Philipp: The underestimated role of small ports

Ports are the backbone of the transport network, without which the worldwide economy could not exist in its present form. If all economic activities that depend on the sea are cumulated, the so-called Blue Economy of the European Union directly employs about five million people and generates around 750 billion EUR in turnover and over 200 billion EUR of gross value added. Seaports represent the main hubs for commercial activities. 70% of all goods are transported to or from ports outside the EU-27, making Maritime Transport the most important mode for long distances, while cargo transport between ports in the EU-27 makes up 27%. Every year, more than four billion tonnes of freight and more than 400 million passengers pass through the 1,200 European ports.

However, the focus of policy makers has been primarily on large ports. Hence, small and medium-sized ports are often underestimated and neglected, which is discernible by different small port closures (Friedrichskoog in Germany, Stigsnæsværkets in Denmark, etc.) and the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) regulations. Regarding the latter, the European Commission, within the issued guidelines for the development of the TEN-T, identified 329 key ports along the European coastline that are slated to become part of a unified network for boosting growth and competiveness in Europe’s Single Market. The TEN-T will be double-layered; it will consist of a core network (planned for 2030) and a comprehensive network (planned for 2050). Inside the core network, nine corridors are planned, which will be multi-modal and intended to improve cross-border links (road, rail, waterways) within the EU. In this context, European ports are differentiated between core ports, comprehensive ports and non-TEN-T ports. Large ports are in the category of core ports, while medium-sized ports are classified as comprehensive ports. However, small ports are not directly considered within the development plans of the TEN-T, which equals around 900 non-TEN-T ports.

Paradoxically, as outlined by the EU-project Connect2SmallPorts (INTERREG V A), conducted between 2018 and 2022, small ports are also the collectors and repositories of knowledge and ideas and thus constitute the hubs of regional economies that are important gateways for regional development. Hence, small ports are crucial logistics hubs and germs of logistics clusters that contribute substantially to regional development.

In 2012, the European Commission defined the European Blue Growth Strategy, which targets to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sector. The European Commission has emphasised in the framework of the Blue Growth Strategy that seas and oceans are drivers for the European economy, with a great potential for innovation and growth. The underlying established sectors include among other things “Marine Living Resources”, “Marine Non-living Resources”, “Marine Renewable Energy”, “Shipbuilding & Repair”, “Maritime Transport”, “Coastal Tourism”, etc.

In the frame of EU-funded project INTERMARE South Baltic (INTERREG V A), which took place between 2017 and 2021, for the very first time, the future Blue Growth potential was investigated and quantified through a conducted forecast analysis. The results revealed among other things that it is important to promote especially the Maritime Transport sector in order to foster Blue Growth in the South Baltic Sea Region. The findings suggest that policy measures should seek to further promote network activities within the blue sector in the South Baltic Sea Region, i.e. especially increase the integration of the identified sectors in the course of cross-border network activities in the region, in order to stimulate Blue Growth. Deeply rooted in the fact that ports are the central hubs and nodes in diverse supply chains in the maritime transport sector, their actions within change management have enormous and far-reaching spillover effects. Ports are the essential and dominating players in the global transport system, which connotes that innovative changes in ports affect the entire economic environment. Hence, their failure or success has a tremendous and multi-layered impact on the different Blue Economy sectors, as well as on all further linked industries, and thus on the economic growth and prosperity in the corresponding regions. This circumstance, as well as the fact that 66% of all Baltic Sea Region seaports are small and medium-sized ports, pleads for a stronger concentration of smaller ports within future policy agendas that target to foster spatially inclusive and comprehensive Blue Growth. Accordingly, without the inclusion of small and medium-sized ports, the idea of further developing and safeguarding a still competitive European Single market remains unachievable.