Request for expression of interest.

Motorways of the Sea projects link EU’s main land axes and inland waterways axes to each other and in this way improve the efficiency of EU’s internal and external transport network as a whole.
The trans-european network of ‘Motorways of the Sea’ aims at improving existing maritime links or to establish new viable, regular and frequent maritime links for transport of goods between Member States of the European Union.

In a medium and long term perspective the European transport network is expected to be increasingly congested by containers and trailers being transported by road between major ports and consumption/production sites in the western part of Europe and Russia. At the same time the demand of timely deliveries is increasing, resulting in a growing number of freight transport operations. The growth of container traffic has resulted in congestion in Continental transhipment also in the Northern Part of EU in the Baltic Sea Region.

Against this background the the Ports in Gothenburg, Aarhus and Riga have informed the Ministries of Transport in the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Republic of Latvia that they intend to apply for funding from the Transeuropean Transport Network (TEN-T) Programme in the form of a ‘Motorways of the Sea’-project. The project aims at improving the infrastructure facilities in these ports and the infrastructure connections between the three ports and their individual hinterland. The project thus aims at further developing the ports into a Baltic Sea hub and spoke system and thereby reducing the pressure on congested sea ports in continental Europe.

The Ports in Gothenburg, Aarhus and Riga request all ports, transport operators and other relevant entities, which could be interested in taking part in this project, to make their interest known to one of the undersigned ports at the latest by 1st June 2009 in order to explore possible cooperation possibilities in relation to the project. On the port side only TEN-T ports of category A can participate in the project.

Start-up aid for shipping lines can not be included in the proposed project for TEN-T funding. Start-up aid for shipping lines could be subject of a parallel project proposal under the Marco Polo II Programme of the European Commission.