The Netherlands is the top country in Europe for deep sea shipping, and also the largest transshipment point for deep sea and short sea shipping. A recent publication for the EU statistical service desk EUROSTAT showed that the top-3 Short Sea Shipping countries in Europe in terms of volume were the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy. Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is an important mode of transport in Europe, because it is efficient and economical. In 2006, SSS accounted for 62% of the total transport of maritime goods in Europe, a grand total of 1.9 million tonnes of cargo.
As the top container port in Europe, with 10.8 million TEU transshipped in 2007, Rotterdam offers a diverse menu list of regular short sea and feeder services to and from more than 110 European ports. Many major SSS destinations, including the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, the Baltic area, the Iberian peninsula and countries around the Mediterranean sea, are served on a daily basis. The top-4 of the current SSS services to and from Rotterdam are:
- United Kingdom/Ireland: 40 weekly services
- Spain/Portugal: 26 weekly services
- Scandinavia: 26 weekly services
- Baltic/Russia: 16 weekly services.
Short Sea and Inland Waterway Shipping are gaining more and more in importance and have developed in the past years a vast momentum. In line with this the EU has a strategic interest in ensuring the continuous performance of Short Sea Shipping. As by 2050 short sea shipping has a strong role in reaching the EU transport goal of reducing 60% of greenhouse gas emission generated by transport and by 2030 the shift of 30% of road freight over 300 km to other modes.
The main priority areas where the European Commission is taking action for enhancing the further development of Short Sea Shipping are threefold:
- Administrative simplification.
- Support industry in picking up new technologies for complying with new and stricter environmental legislation.
- Integration of short sea shipping in full logistics chains.
European Short Sea Shipping Network.
With a view to promoting Short Sea Shipping, Shortsea Promotion Centres (SPC) have been established in nearly all coastal EU Member States. The Commission encourages the coordination of the SPCs at European level, within a European Shortsea Network (ESN).