The ports of the Upper Adriatic reaffirm their intentions of close cooperation within the framework of NAPA

On Friday, the seven ports signed a declaration jointly with which they undertake to promote and strengthen the trilateral cooperation between Italy, Croatia and Slovenia relaunched in December 2020 and consolidated last April April, agreement that is supported by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Mobility Sustainable in cooperation with the corresponding Ministries of Croatia and Slovenia and aims to give concrete application to the commitments taken by the Trilateral of foreign ministers of the three countries in the areas related to the north-Adriatic ports: green port, smart port, implementation of connections to TEN-T networks.

On the front of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency, in line with the objectives set by the European Green Deal and the "FIT for 55" legislative package recently approved by the European Commission, the Joint Declaration stipulates that NAPA ports undertake to permanent cross-border cooperation aimed at minimising environmental impacts of port operations in the Northern area Adriatic starting from the good practices that emerged from the projects of ongoing cooperation, co-financed by the European Union, such as CLEAN BERTH and SUSPORT projects (Interreg Italy-Slovenia and Italy-Croatia), the EALING (Connecting Europe Facility) project, and by the pilot actions common between all ports. They fall within these last, the implementation of measures and interventions for the energy efficiency of port operations, the installation of systems for the use of energy sources alternatives and for the monitoring of the noise level, of the air and water quality in the port area, as well as pre-investment studies for the electrification of the docks.

In addition, being main nodes of two priority corridors of the TEN-T network (Baltic-Adriatic and Mediterranean) and Motorways of the Sea of the Eastern Mediterranean as well as actors main in the transport scenario at territorial level, national and European, with the signing of the document the ports NAPA has undertaken to optimise and harmonise the logistic and transport procedures on the sea and land side through the use of digital technologies. The goal is to streamlining last-mile port procedures, procedures and times of entry and exit of ships and apply tools integrated technology for the dissemination of information useful for improve the safety of maritime transport operations. A commitment that NAPA ports are already carrying out through the implementation of the European projects INTESA, PROMARES (Interreg Italy-Croatia) and COMODALCE (Interreg Central Europe).

On the theme of "connectivity", the Joint Declaration signed by the seven ports also underlines the importance of developing strategic projects to enhance the integration of NAPA ports into the TEN-T network, in particular enhancing last mile rail connections. Right on this theme was recently approved the project ACCESS2NAPA, co-funded by the Connecting Europe Facility, which includes designs to improve accessibility maritime and railway of the airports.

Finally, to support trilateral cooperation, the document identifies three priorities for the ports of the Upper Adriatic: complete the missing links and facilitate integration into the TEN-T network, extend the TEN-T and MOS also to non-EU countries and include rail freight transport and size maritime in European Territorial Cooperation Programs 2021-2027, in particular Interreg Central Europe, Interreg Adriatic-Ionian, Interreg Italy-Slovenia and Italy-Croatia.

Welcoming the signing of the agreement, the President of the Adriatic Sea Port Authority Northern and president of NAPA, Fulvio Lino Di Blasio, highlighted that "the Upper Adriatic is the natural outlet for fundamental markets and - he explained - strengthen the cross-border cooperation will make it possible to put the value the potential and specificities of all airports. Thanks to the commitment of the ministers and my counterparts and colleagues Italians, Croats and Slovenes and the European investiture by the European Commissioner for Transport - underlined Di Blasio in occasion of the ceremony held in the presence of Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport - today we laid the foundations for the creation of a virtuous system, able to work together even at European level to achieve the common goal of smart ports, green and increasingly interconnected».