The Shortsea Shipping was first put on the agenda in the Council report drawn up in 1995 in the European Unoin. In 1999, a more comprehensive definition was made in 2001, the White Paper was published. In this Paper, an emphasis was made on the usage of the Short Sea Shipping as a more economicaly alternative than the other modes of transport, and this mode of transport was favored. Taking the increasing load on the highway routes into consideration, the decisions of establishing the Short Sea Centers in EU countries with coasts to the sea, thus conveying information and taking action in close cooperation were made. In parallel with this progress, the Short Sea Promotion Center (SPC- Turkey) has been established in our country by the TOBB and the secretarial duties have been undertaken by the Istanbul & Marmara, Aegean, Metiterranean, Black Sea Regions Chamber of Shipping (IMEAK Deniz Ticaret Odasi) as being the promotion center's secretariat. A “Wider Europe for Transport” process was initiated by the EU on 13 May 2004. In this context, European Commission Directorate-General Energy and Transport held a seminar between 7-8 June 2004 in Spain.In the framework of the decisions made in the seminar, a “High Level Working Group” (HLWG) was determined to be built so as to work on the enlargement and development of the Trans-European Networks (TEN-T) in parallel with the EU’s enlargement process. Major important arteries that will enable the EU’s connection to the neighbouring countries or regions, thus bearing significance in terms of the international transport including the Short Sea Shipping in addition to the determination of the priority projects on these major arteries and bringing suggestions on the horizontal priorities that will facilitate transportation and trade were targeted in the first meeting of the HLWG held between 18-19 October 2004 in Brussels. In the “Wider Europe for Transport - High Level Working Group” meeting held under the auspices of the Ministery of Transport, a number of proposals were brought on the agenda concerning the extension of the routes to Turkey, and decisions were made regarding the suggestion of İzmir, Mersin, İstanbul and Samsun ports so as to enable the connection of these eligible routes with the sea and involve in the “Motorways of the Sea” concept developed by the EU in the framework of the project concerned. Among the projects offered, those of Mersin and Samsun have been accepted. Shortsea Shippping Advantages 1. Low infrastructure costs 2. Alternative varieties of service (route) 3. Environmentally friendly low energy consumption 4. Unlimited capacity usage 5. Being much more secure in comparison to the other modes of transportation 6. Fair pricing 7. Lower jam rate 8. Optimum duration in navigation, convenient transit duration Opportunities in the Development of the Short Sea Shipping : 1. Global warming and the reinforcement of the environmentalist sensitivity 2. Increase in the highway jams and casualties 3. Reduction of costs in the global economies 4. International support to the Short Sea Shipping Threats in the Development of the Short Sea Shipping : 1. Unknown by the vast majority of the market 2. Insufficient infrastructures at ports 3. Insufficient co-ordination with the other modes of transports 4. Bottlenecks experienced in the Customs procedures 5. Insufficient market infrastructure

The Short Sea Shipping is a mode of passenger and freight transportation among the European ports as well as between these ports and the non-European countries that have coasts to the inland seas at the European borders. According to this definition, the Short Sea Shipping comprises of the inland waterways transport and the international maritime transport, feeder services that provides connection to the main ports, transport alongside the coasts and towards the islands as well as the river and lake transport. Thus, the Short Sea Shipping includes maritime transportation among the EU member countries and the countries with coasts to the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea as well as the European Economic Area members Norway and Iceland. Briefly, this type of transportation can be defined as the short distance and short period maritime transportation that does not cross the Atlantic as stated in the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT). The Short Sea Shipping is not only an alternative to the road transportation but it is also formed out of different transportation modes, found in the combined transportation network and aiming at the optimization of the logistics services. Nowadays, the Short Sea Shipping has performed a close development to that of the road transportation by proving a successful and sustainable growth in comparison to the other transportation modes in the EU. While the 90% of the foreign trade of the EU countries is being realized by sea, the 45% of the transport among the EU countries is being realized by sea on ton-mile basis. The EU countries have an active position in transportation by controlling the 40% of the world’s fleet. There has been a shift in the policies prescribing the transfer of the freight increase from the road, as a result of the increasing members in the EU and the growth of the trade volume, to the inland waterways and the maritime transportation The policies such as the elimination of the bureaucratic burdens, convenient transportation costs and the regulations as well as the shift of the transports from the road to the sea have been supported. For this reason, especially the policies such as the simplification of regulations concerning the Customs declarations and hazardous goods transportation, improvements in the port tarriffs as well as the infrastructures of the lading and discharge ports and freight transfers to the sea should be supported.

Our Shortsea Promotion Center is a member of European Shortsea Network