The EU-ETS Observatory promoted by the Spanish government agency Puertos del Estado presented in Brussels, at the headquarters of the of the European Sea Ports Organisation, the results of its analysis of the impact on European container ports resulting from the inclusion of maritime transport in the EU-ETS, the emissions trading of the European Union, which took place on January 1, 2024. Compared to the first results presented at the end of 2025 ( of 16 December 2025), the Observatory provided additional data that confirm a reduction in container traffic connections to long distance in EU ports compared to the ports of the countries not subject to European environmental regulations. In In particular, the data show a decline in the share of activity of the main European ports measured in teu-miles, i.e. the TEU container transport capacity of incoming ships in ports multiplied by the distance traveled, which has dropped from 67% in 2023 to 56% in 2025, with the most significant declines significant in Northern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The first results presented at December had already revealed an increase in activity in non-EU ports located near Europe, such as those in the UK United in Northern Europe and Egypt and Turkey in Mediterranean. Data shows that, in 2023, UK ports accounted for 17.5% of the total teu-miles of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands combined, while in July by 2025 this percentage had almost doubled to 32.1%. This difference of 15 percentage points in two years - he noted the Observatory - corresponds almost exactly to the losses recorded overall by the Netherlands and Germany. In the Mediterranean Egyptian ports recorded the highest growth in the TEU-miles share, rising from 35% in 2022 to 52% in 2022 2025, while Greece recorded a strong drop from 45% to 12%.

The Observatory recalled that the situation of the Suez, where maritime traffic has been reduced due to the crisis situation in the Red Sea region, combined with the change in the maritime alliances, has led to a reorganization of the sea lanes that took place almost at the same time as the entry into force of the ETS Maritime, thus generating a profound disturbance of the market. However - the Observatory noted - even if the closure of the Egyptian channel is an absolutely relevant factor, this Factor alone does not explain the growth in connectivity currently observed in countries such as the United Kingdom and Egypt, nor can it be attributed to usual factors as a significant increase in economic activity, a Reduced operating costs or congestion problems in ports neighboring European Championships.

In addition, the Observatory recalled that this growth in the traffic, measured in teu-miles, is accompanied by a increase in planned investments which are expected to increase by +21% port capacity in UK ports, while in the Eastern Mediterranean, in particular in Israel, Turkey and Egypt, planned investments will allow for an increase in +43% of capacity measured in millions of TEUs handled per year. Given that port expansion must be based on projections in the long term, the Observatory noted, it follows that investments of these countries are not driven by short-term factors but rather by structural changes in traffic maritime.

Commenting on these data, and specifying that "the support of Puertos del Estado to the decarbonization process is absolutely steadfast", the president of the government agency Gustavo Santana, specified that, "however, we believe that some aspects related to the application of the ETS to the maritime sector must be monitored and, where necessary, revised in order to improve the system and contribute to the objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while preserving competitiveness and control of our supply chain supply'.