The Port of Gdansk in the European Transport Network

27.05.2009

On 26 May this year, the Port of Gdansk Authority SA played host to representatives of the European Union transport committees. The delegation was headed by the European Coordinator for the Trans-European Transport Network, Luis Valente de Oliveira, who for many years managed transport departments in Portugal. He was accompanied by Jose Laranjeira Anselmo - Principal Administrator of the TEN-T Policy and Pawel Stelmaszczyk - Head of Logistics, Co-modality, Inland Waterways, Motorways of the Sea & Marco Polo, whose efforts focus on the Trans-European Transport Network and the EU Sea Transport Policy.

The intensive agenda of the visit provided the most thorough conceivable confirmation of the opinions regarding the possibility and the necessity of including the Gdansk port in defining - within the framework of the European Union - optimal load capacity strategies for transportation routes of the Old Continent. It was not without significance, therefore, that the guided tour of the port facilities was conducted by the PGA SA Marketing Director, Julian Skelnik, who simultaneously holds the office of Chairman of BPO (Baltic Ports Organisation) and Vice-Chairman of ESPO (European Sea Ports Organisation). The matter-of-fact discussions, with participation representing operating, shipping and freight companies, shipowners, agencies and customs services cooperating with the Port of Gdansk, enabled the visitors to draw conclusions that coincided with the port development strategy, since both the BPO and ESPO structures have already recognized Gdansk as one of the major links of trans-European corridors in the modern day united Europe.

Since Brussels is becoming increasingly concerned about congestions experienced by the western seaports - as confirmed by Valente de Oliveira - it must find alternative routes for rising imports from India and China. Gdansk, besides Stockholm and Copenhagen Malmoe ports, offers the best parameters that enable the rapid adoption of a distribution function for goods destined for south-east Europe and a large part of Russia. As seaports were designated to play a key role in the EU supported programmes aiming to eliminate heavy load transport from long land routes, it is necessary that the selected ports be afforded conditions for storage and efficient distribution to regions within the natural hinterland.

This reflection, broadened by the economic grounds for assigning the key role to the port in Gdansk, must couple with the determination in implementing the agenda for the construction of motorways, railway bridges, tunnels and fast railways connecting Gdansk with the centre of Europe. Additionally, considerable interest was raised among the visitors by the lost concept of reinstating the navigation on the Vistula river. While it seems - similarly to the launch of the GPS system for worldwide container turnovers - to count for not more than a prospect of a distant future, it may represent another alternative for discharging traffic congestions in our part of the world. This idea is further motivated by an increasingly widespread belief that a free market and unrestricted competition must translate into a common action of all players in the global goods exchange - to the benefit of the mutual protection of individual interests, but also for the common good.

The future of the intermodal transportation already looks bright, which was the reason why the EU experts ended their visit to the Gdansk port at one of the most rapidly expanding container terminals in this region of the Baltic - DCT Gdansk, adjacent to the Northern Port. The EU's interest in developing container terminals suited to handling large-sized vessels in all cargo handling technologies appears to be a natural consequence of the knowledge of the prevailing trends in the world goods transport. The setting-up of logistics centres and container depots in the terminals' hinterland as complementary facilities to their operations will enable e.g. the elimination of shipping empty containers and represents another argument for investing in the Gdansk port.

Concluding, the strategy aimed at transforming Gdansk into a universal port facility suited to the handling of all types of cargos itself proves attractive to the EU partners. It will be further enhanced - as was informed during the discussion - by opening up to advanced technologies in terms of container transport services. The support of the European Union for such a development vision of the Gdansk port seems to be the best guarantee of its future success.