General Assembly of NAPA ports in Koper
Northern Adriatic Ports Association announces plans to support hinterland railway network
Koper hosted the General Assembly of Northern Adriatic Ports Association. At the NAPA General Assembly meeting its five presidents gave an overview of the past common accomplishments and introduced future goals. One of the most important achievements was the European Commission’s recognition of NAPA ports as European core ports and Northern Adriatic as the key EU entrance. The EU Commission supported that with the proposal for building the railway network TEN-t and connecting NAPA ports (except Rijeka, which is not an EU member yet) to Adriatic-Baltic and Mediterranean corridors. With that the Commission opened a possibility for NAPA member states to obtain financial support for building a railway network to their hinterlands from EU funds. The presidents also introduced future goals and development plans for NAPA. All members will expand the existing container capacities and are determined to attract more direct lines to the Adriatic and grow as a destination, competitive with Northern European ports.
NAPA was established in November 2009 in order to promote North Adriatic transport routes on potential markets, especially the Far East. Member ports also engaged themselves in pursuing ecology, safety and information technology issues within all transport connections, most important being European railway corridors. NAPA was established by ports of Koper, Venice, Ravenna and Trieste; Port of Rijeka joined in 2010. The presidency rotates among all the port member presidents for a 6 months mandate. The first to take over the presidency was president of management board of Port of Koper, Mr. Gregor Veselko, and has taken over the NAPA steering wheel again this 1st July. Last year NAPA ports accounted for 124 million tonnes of cargo throughput, or handled 1,8 million TEU containers, which places NAPA on the forth place among the European ports.
Quelle: LogEastics
Portal: www.logistik-express.com