The French port system: forty years of port governance reforms

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.