The Hague 2025

Young Visions of Peace and Security

INTA

Motion for a Resolution by the Committee on International Trade

Pier Pressure: Seaports are not only conduits for European trade, but also hubs for research, and the development of industrial and environmental innovations. However, European ports face a regulatory environment fragmented between the European and national levels and infiltration by drug trafficking networks, hindering investment needed to keep pace with growing worldwide competition and decarbonization commitments. With this in mind, what can the EU do to ensure European ports fulfill their economic and societal potential? 
INTA
Study the Topic Overview for background information about this resolution

This committee is supported by North Sea Port

Submitted by:

Duarte Cambey (PT), Dalia Haka (AT), Arsen Martirosyan (AM), Moïra Mesnil (FR), Matěj Novotný (CZ), Anastasiia Panko (UA), Elias Schmauch (DE), Annabel Smith (NL), Tordar Soløy (NO), Maša Tasić (RS), Enrique Tena (ES), Shaina Vadher (UK), Nadia Schnider (Chairperson, CH)

The European Youth Parliament aims to improve seaport efficiency and decrease bottlenecks in maritime logistics. Furthermore, it seeks to reduce the harm inflicted by organised crime in European harbours and strives towards the harmonisation of European maritime legislation. Finally, it aspires to reduce the negative impact of seaports on the environment,

because

Out of over a thousand European seaports, the three largest account for 20% of all goods arriving in Europe in part due to large differences in performance and efficiency, leading to bottlenecks and congestion1,

Many ports are surrounded by residential areas or geographical barriers that impede further growth and lead to a bigger logistical strain2 for hinterlands3,

Since the biggest ports in the EU have stricter security to fight drug trafficking, secondary ports4 are in danger of becoming a target of organised crime due to less strict regulations5,

Criminal activity in ports and gang rivalries often lead to violence spreading into nearby cities, where organised crime groups fight over distribution areas6,

There is little cooperation between public and private actors in combating organised crime and drug trafficking7,

PIN code fraud8 is the main method for drug traffickers to enter EU ports9,

Existing EU directives tackling maritime security are implemented differently in Member States, leading to differing security frameworks and risks in different Member States10,

Maritime shipping industry emissions significantly impact the environment11, 

Many port cities exceed the 2030 air quality targets set by the Ambient Air Quality Directive12, 

Only a few port cities have implemented sampling points to track the air quality13, 

Noise pollution in ports harms marine ecosystems, fisheries, and nearby environments14, 

Ports hold a significant unexploited potential to become renewable energy hubs15;

by

  1. Requests the European Commission to include secondary ports in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T)16;
  2. Calls upon Member States to create a plan for port infrastructure development focused on expanding hinterland access to secondary ports, studying their future expansion potential;
  3. Directs the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) to invest in software designed to forecast the trade volume of ports and optimise their internal logistics;
  4. Calls upon Europol to facilitate greater cooperation between bigger and smaller ports to promote collaborative efforts to tackle organised crime;
  5. Urges Europol to strengthen public-private cooperation in port security by setting up a permanent task force involving customs officers, law enforcement, and sea terminal operators;
  6. Requests Europol to prevent infiltration by organized crime in Member States by:
    1. expanding mandatory training programs for port workers across Member States,
    2. improving partnerships with ports in non-member states to enhance international cooperation,
    3. reinforcing background check procedures for private employers that operate in ports of Member States;
  7. Calls upon the European Commission to invest in innovative projects within EU ports through Horizon Europe, specifically cosmic ray tomography17 and underwater drone technologies;
  8. Encourages the European Sea Port Organisation (ESPO) and the Federation of European Private Port Companies and Terminals (FEPORT) to invest in more secure authentication methods at port;
  9. Calls upon the Directorate-General for Trade (DG TRADE) to adopt a unified implementation of the ISPS across Member States;
  10. Urges the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support Research and Development into green maritime technologies with subsidies to encourage competition by:
    1. widely establishing onshore power18 in European seaports,
    2. implementing water monitoring and cleaning drones,
    3. introducing nets to prevent runoffs and spills from the port industrial areas to the the sea,
    4. implementing noise-dampening technologies in port terminals and port industrial areas;
  11. Urges the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) to create mandatory sampling points to monitor air, water, and noise pollution in all main EU ports19;
  12. Calls upon the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to revise the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)20 regulation to include ships over 500 gross tonnage21;
  13. Encourages the ESPO and the FEPORT to cooperate with the EuropeWave initiative22 and Ocean Energy Europe23 to conduct research on and establish wave energy facilities.

FOOTNOTES

  1. European Commission (2013), “Europe’s Seaports 2030: Challenges Ahead” ↩︎
  2.  European Central Bank (2021), “What is driving the recent surge in shipping costs?” ↩︎
  3. Hinterlands are inland regions that are far from seaports, which are nonetheless reliant on resources and services from the ports.
    ↩︎
  4. Secondary Ports are small or medium-sized ports, which service smaller regions or work in an assisting function for main ports. ↩︎
  5. Eucrim (2023), “Criminal Infiltration of EU Ports” ↩︎
  6. Splash (2023), “Europol details how criminal networks have infiltrated leading European ports” ↩︎
  7. Europol (2024), “Leveraging legitimacy: How the EU’s most threatening criminal networks abuse legal business structures” ↩︎
  8. PIN code fraud in cargo shipping occurs when criminals steal or misuse unique reference codes assigned to shipping containers. These codes, which are used for tracking and pickup authorisation, allow them to illegally access and remove cargo from ports without detection. ↩︎
  9. Europol (2022), “New Modus Operandi: How organised crime infiltrates the ports of Europe” ↩︎
  10. Risk Intelligence (2024), “The ISPS Code and port obligations” ↩︎
  11. European Parliament (2017), “EU port cities and port area regeneration” ↩︎
  12. European Union (2024), “Directive (EU) 2024/2881 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2024 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe” ↩︎
  13. European Environment Information and Observation Network (2024), “ETC HE Report 2024/12: Air quality around ports” ↩︎
  14. European Parliament (2017), “EU port cities and port area regeneration” ↩︎
  15. Wind Europe (2023), “Offshore Wind Ports Platform” ↩︎
  16. European Commission (2025), “Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T)” ↩︎
  17. Cosmic ray tomography is a promising technology for cargo screening. With this technology, it is possible to identify materials hidden inside shielding that are too thick or deep for other imaging methods. ↩︎
  18. Onshore power is a technology rapidly gaining popularity, which allows ships to turn off their engines while in the seaport, as they are supplied by an in-harbour energy supply compatible with green energy sources. ↩︎
  19.  Main ports are ports handling more than 1 mln tonnes of goods or 200,000 passengers annually. ↩︎
  20.  Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) requirements are a set of controls all cargo ships entering the European Economic Area carrying more than 5,000 gross tonnage or more must undergo, pursuant to the EU MRV Maritime Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2015/757). ↩︎
  21. Gross tonnage (GT) describes the internal volume of cargo ships. Ships larger than 500 GT include large passenger boats and the vast majority of cargo ships. ↩︎
  22. EuropeWave (2025), “Welcome to EuropeWave” ↩︎
  23. Ocean Energy Europe (2025), “OEE: the largest global network of ocean energy professionals” ↩︎