Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze
Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti
In 1999, the European Commission started to establish the national promotion Centers (SPCs) to promote Short Sea Shipping in the single Member States. The SPCs aim at demonstrating, with the support of national institutions and industry main stakeholders, that sea transport can be a reliable, safe, profitable and certainly more eco-friendly alternative compared to road transport.
Their main activities are:
The European Shortsea Network (ESN) gathers all the SPCs in the EU, with the aim of coordinating the activities at European level and promote Short Sea Shipping by engaging the major international stakeholders.
The SPCs of the European Shortsea Network include the 21 EU Member States and Turkey:
Throughout 2015, the ESN has edited and finalized the Network's Legal Identity official document, which states the desire by all the Short Sea Shipping Promotion Centers to strengthen the cooperation and increase the number of activities, also through their juridical recognition. The document has been officially signed in Brussels on January 15th 2016.