Wpływ procesów globalizacyjnych i integracyjnych na rozwój transportu morskiego i portów morskich w Unii Europejskiej

The ongoing globalisation and liberalisation of the international markets, including transport ones, enhance the competition and accelerate vertical and horizontal integration in the global scale. Those processes affecting directly the world industry and trade concern also maritime transport and seaports. Due to this, the seaports are getting gradually an integral part of the vertically integrating transport chains (intermodality), becoming important logistics centers and parts of maritime clusters. The common transport policy influences the EU maritime transport and seaports’ development, as well. The core of this policy is the idea of the sustainable development in order to ensure the appropriate balance in economic, social, technical, spatial and ecological terms on the European transport market. EU wants to focus on ‘from road to sea’ solutions by shifting the demand from road to maritime transport, for example. Moreover, the policy the Union promotes the development of the logistics in order to create better synergies between road, sea, rail and river and integrate various transport modes in logistics chains. The latest Green Paper on Future Maritime Policy is a step towards a holistic approach which could benefit to European ports. However, it is unlikely that there will be a harmonisation of port policy soon. It is not clear yet whether the EU wants to support bigger seaports or rather struggle for the development of regional and local ones (Polish ports, for example).