I would like to thank the members of EFIP for the 15 years of great collaboration during my time as Vice-President of this organisation. It has been an honour to work with such passionate and dedicated professionals. A special thanks to the members of the Presidency who I could count on, and who took the lead in developing a clear vision for the organisation.

I would also like to highlight the work of the directors of EFIP, starting with Isabelle Ryckbost’s intelligent insights to Turi Fiorito’s enthusiasm. They are the motor of the organisation.

I’ve seen the organisation evolve from the defense of an industry to a force for proposition and change towards a decarbonised port economy, anticipating and working toward an energy (r)evolution.
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Inland ports serve as both local players and global gateways at and are an essential part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) because they are the main modal shift points in Europe.

There are plenty of challenges ahead, and EFIP is more necessary than ever: to align our views, to share the best practices and to inform the Commission that inland ports are a driving force and, yes, that they are different from sea ports. I remember being there when the proposal was made to merge the EFIP administration with the European Sea Port association (ESPO) which was led at the time by Isabelle Ryckbost.

EFIP members were concerned that it would be an absorption by the much larger sea-port associations. In the end, we found a modus vivendi thanks to the creativity of Isabelle and the Presidency at that time: 1 administration, 2 organisations!

To end this contribution, and as a Belgian, I’ll talk about the weather. Can you guess where I experienced the worst weather during an EFIP General Assembly (GA) in the past 15 years? Not in Brussels, Strasbourg or Berlin. No, it was in one of the driest places in Europe: I had the luck to see Seville under the rain in 2018. It was not a little bit; it was truly raining cats and dogs. The general director of the Port of Seville, Angel Pulido, whom I appreciate a lot and is a very friendly man, had invited us and told us that during that period (end April/May), the weather would be great and it would even be possible to go to the beach and swim. Well, we had quite a surprise. Talking about climate change and the resilience of the port infrastructure came spontaneously during the GA.