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  • September 27th, 2025
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The French port system: forty years of port governance reformsFeatured

The French port system: forty years of port governance reforms

April 22nd, 2022 Featured, PortStudies

READ ALSO

When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?
When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?
Optimizing Asia–Europe container network: The Suez Canal and Cape of Good Hope routes in a changing world
Optimizing Asia–Europe container network: The Suez Canal and Cape of Good Hope routes in a changing world
PortEconomics members among best-performing scholars globally
PortEconomics members among best-performing scholars globally
Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines
Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

The latest chapter of PortEconomics members Pierre Cariou and Jason Monios along with Laurent Fedi (Kedge Business School, France) presents the current French port governance system that has been shaped over the last four decades. The key evolutions and features of the legal framework applied to the large and secondary French seaports (called ‘Grand Port Maritimes’) are evaluated through a critical lens showing that the successive port regulations, new planning and financial tools have been embedded in conservatism around the restrictive concept of ‘public service’. Notwithstanding an attempt to advance liberalisation of port activities, valuation of port land and the lately implementation of the landlord port model, the fragmented reforms have not yet produced the beneficial effects expected in terms of competitiveness and performance.

The chapter has been published in the latest book Regulation and Finance in the Port Industry: Lessons from Worldwide Experiences edited by Claudio Ferrari, Hercules Haralambides, Sergio Prete and Alessio Tei.

You can download the authors’ version of the chapter via @PortEconomics.

Cite: Fedi, L., Cariou, P., & Monios, J. (2022). The French Port System: Forty Years of Port Governance Reforms. In Regulation and Finance in the Port Industry (pp. 187-210). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

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Jason Monios

Dr Jason Monios is Associate Professor in Maritime Logistics at Kedge Business School, Marseille, France. His research areas include intermodal transport and logistics, port system evolution, collaboration and integration in port hinterlands, port governance and policy, institutional and regulatory settings, port sustainability and climate change adaptation. He has led numerous research projects on these topics with a total budget of over €1m. He has over 70 peer-reviewed academic publications in addition to numerous research and consultancy reports, covering Europe, North and South America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He has worked with national and regional transport authorities and co-authored technical reports with UNCTAD and UN-ECLAC. Jason is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) and co-chair of the Intermodal Freight Transport SIG of the World Conference on Transportation Research Society (WCTRS), as well as a member of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), the Port Performance Research Network (PPRN) and the Port Economics online initiative. He currently holds a visiting position at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4916-9718

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When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?

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