Here's my beef! The EU got the strategy right; delivery is what counts now

Here’s my beef! The EU got the strategy right; delivery is what counts now
**A port’s perspective on the new EU Ports Strategy**

On 4 March 2026, the European Commission published its long-awaited EU Ports Strategy.  As a cross-border industrial port straddling Belgium and the Netherlands, North Sea Port has been watching this EU initiative closely.  We’re pleased with where it landed.

The strategy finally captures something we’ve been saying for years: ports are not only logistics nodes. We are energy hubs, industrial clusters and increasingly, providers of public services tied to resilience, strategic autonomy and military mobility.  Seeing that dual identity (commercial and public-interest) embedded in an EU text matters.  It’s the basis for smarter policy down the line.

For logistics and freight leaders, there’s substance too. The Strategy points to 2024’s rising waiting times at major EU ports as not just being about sea access, but points to capacity, terminal productivity and hinterland links as increasing constraints.  To push modal shift, the Commission will strengthen access to rail service facilities and prepare an Inland Waterway Transport Action Plan for 2028-2034, backed by new funding rules to make it easier to support multimodal facilities with rail or inland waterway connections inside ports.  There’s also reference to a push on shared data standards to improve supply chain visibility.  At North Sea Port, 62% of our modal split already moves by inland shipping and 10% by rail.  So a shift in emphasis on networks, is exactly the right one for a hub like ours.

As ports, it is important to keep our eye on investment stability.  Key logistical and industrial players don’t commit to a port on a whim.  A new terminal, production facility or a piece of cutting-edge infrastructure is an engagement with a long term horizon and that only works if the underlying concession or land lease framework is reliable.  We raised this point loudly and the Commission confirms this by explicitly mentioning the role of robust contractual frameworks in attracting capital.

Foreign investment is where the work sits.  The Strategy channels economic-security concerns for TEN-T core ports through the EU’s Foreign Direct Investment screening framework.  That principle is settled, but the details matter.  Any port-specific rules built on top of that horizontal FDI instrument need to be proportionate and workable, with genuine safeguards on how commercially sensitive data is collected and shared.  Get this wrong and you deter exactly the investors Europe wants to attract; get it right and you protect strategic assets without burying port authorities in geopolitical risk assessments that aren’t theirs to make.

Military mobility and dual-use infrastructure are the other developments to watch.  This is where I sense the political energy is really building.  At our April breakfast table in the European Parliament, this was the topic that drew the most MEP questions: cooperation with the defence sector, cyber resilience, security protocols, … North Sea Port sits in a strategically important spot for military mobility within Europe and NATO, and dual-use has a prominent place in our Strategic Plan “Impact 2030”.  The Strategy’s recognition of ports’ public-service role (resilience, strategic autonomy, defence logistics) needs to translate into infrastructure investment, funding and realisation, not just language.

That breakfast table was co-hosted with Port of Antwerp-Bruges and Port of Rotterdam, and the message we brought together was simple: stop looking at these files in silos.  Whether it’s energy, defence or decarbonisation, the Belgian–Dutch–German port ecosystem functions as one system and policy should reflect that.  A coordinated voice is an asset in Brussels.

None of this works without strong private investments and public funding.

So here’s my beef, if I have one: the direction of this EU Ports Strategy is right and the Commission clearly understands what ports are and what they’re up against. What matters now is delivery: proportionate FDI rules that protect strategic assets without scaring off legitimate investors, adequate funding behind the dual-use, defence-logistics role ports are increasingly asked to play, and continued investment in the energy transition and decarbonisation of our industries and port ecosystem.  The strategy sets the direction, but it is now up to Parliament, Council, member states, industry and the logistics sector whether it actually delivers.

Louise De Tremerie
EU Affairs, North Sea Port
July 026