European Port Policy
European Port Policy
European Port Policy
Port state control in the EU: do inspectors' number & background matter?
The succession of maritime accidents in the last decades of the 20 century caused a strong political and public outcry for more stringent maritime safety regulations and measures. One of the most significant developments in this regard was the establishment of several regional agreements on Port State Control (PSC) – the first of which was the Paris MoU – with the specific objective of fighting substandard shipping through coordinated and harmonised inspection procedures. PortEconomics member Pierre Cariou along with Armando...
European Port Policy
PORTOPIA: port users' perceptions on port performance
PortEconomics member George Vaggelas presented the platform for measuring the port users’ perception on port performance, one of the new topics on port performance measurement that has been tackled in the PORTOPIA framework. Following a brief description of the electronic platform developed for the exploitation of port users’ perceptions, George presented the results of the pilot phase, conducted by a team also including PortEconomics member Thanos Pallis, which aimed at assessing the functionality of the electronic platform and its...
European Port Policy
A global analysis of port industry performance
Exploring possibilities for benchmarking the European port system on specific indicators against non-European port systems, PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom present a summary of the (publicly available) Indicators reported by international organisations and associations, non-European national statistics agencies and offices and other miscalleneous sources. The presentation was delivered during the final event of the PORTOPIA project, that was held in Brussels on 9th of November, and is available to be freely downloaded (following...
European Port Policy
Measuring the missing link in port performance evaluation
Port performance measurement is continuously gaining ground in contemporary port management. Intense competition and the progressive metamorphosis of port authorities’ idiosyncrasies towards more commercialised and industrialised entities have been vital: ports, in their vast majority, are actively engaged in the complex supply chains aiming, among others, to increase market shares. In this setting, the importance of port performance measurement emerged as a necessary condition for ports in order to benchmark their business vis-a-vis...
European Port Policy
Emission control taxes in different port competition and co-operation settings
Using a game theory approach, the latest port study of PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom and Cui Han (University of Antwerp, Belgium) analyses a situation in which the government imposes a certain emission tax on vessels and port operations for emission control in port areas. Two ports are considered: a purely private port and a landlord (partial public) port. These two ports are in Cournot or Bertrand competition or cooperation with differentiated service. The authors' model outcomes lead to the following conclusions. First, the...
European Port Policy
Re-positioning Greece as a global maritime capital
The Greek shipping community remains confident about the role of Greece as maritime center in the coming years and believes that its enhancement would strengthen their business - in spite of the the growing attractiveness of competing maritime centers, PortEconomics members Thanos Pallis and George Vaggelas collaborated with Ernest & Young in a study focusing on the 'repositioning Greece as a global maritime capital". The study, which was presented during a press conference held in Athens, Greece, includes a survey and...
European Port Policy
PORTOPIA: double interview on the future of port performance indicators in Europe
The PORTOPIA project has entered its last year. This is a good time to make up a balance and to look into the future of the project. Therefore, we organised an interview with Isabelle Ryckbost, Secretary General of ESPO, and Michael Dooms, the PORTOPIA project coordinator. 1. What are the main achievements of the PORTOPIA project so far? “Obviously a 4-year project with a large budget has many achievements to highlight,” starts Michael Dooms. “If I were to pick the main one,” he continues, “it would be the fact that we have...
European Port Policy
Italian port governance: the renovation
Are port governance reforms embedded in specific institutional and economic domains? In their latest port study examining the recent renovation of port governance in Italy, PortEconomics members Francesco Parola and Giovanni Satta - along with Claudio Ferrari (University of Genoa), Alessio Tei (Newcastle University, UK) and Enrico Musso (University of Genoa) - challenge traditional models and proposed an alternative contextualization of governance schemes in local territorial contexts. The study analyzes institutional trajectories in...
European Port Policy