This year's winner of the European Sea Ports Organisation's EPSO Award went to the Barcelona Port Authority in recognition of the role of maritime passenger transport in enhancing the city connectivity and bringing added value to the local community.
The ESPO Award was handed out by Magda Kopczynska, Director for Innovative and Sustainable Mobility in the European Commission’s department for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), during the traditional ceremony and dinner at the Bozar in Brussels, which gathered more than 170 guests.
Barcelona Port Authority won the ESPO Award 2022 for its project “Your Port Opens Up Again”. The project involves the deeper integration of the old port of Barcelona and the city through the completion of the reorganization of passenger traffic. It includes transferring one ferry and two cruise terminals from the old port area to a wharf located in the commercial port exclusively dedicated to passengers and relocating a multipurpose terminal in the commercial port.
Dimitrios Theologitis, Chairman of the ESPO award jury said about the winning project: “One of the major current European port investment projects, it is admirable in that it faithfully follows a plan since the Olympic Games of 1992. It draws together numerous public and private actors, it invests in green technologies to minimise externalities, it responds to the wishes of its host city by giving back valuable waterfront space and solving major congestion problems.”
Santiago Garcia Milà, deputy Director General of the Port of Barcelona said: "We are very honoured with this award, especially since it is an award coming from ESPO. We consider winning this award as an appreciation and support for our strategy which aims at combining sustainability with taking care of the passengers that come and leave from our port."
Out of the seven submissions received this year, the projects of Barcelona Port Authority (Spain), Tallinn Port Authority (Estonia), Ceuta Port Authority (Spain) and ADRIJO Network - Adriatic Ports Cultural Network (Croatia, Italia) had been shortlisted for this 14th edition. All the submissions are summarised in the ESPO Award Brochure 2022.
Yesterday, ESPO also published its Annual Report 2021-2022, which outlines the activities of the organisation over the past year. The Annual Report can be downloaded here.
