ESPO’s plan for next week? ESPO Conference in Athens of course!
13 May 2015
On Thursday next week, the European Sea Ports Organisation, its members and the whole port industry are gathering in Athens for the 12th edition of ESPO’s Annual Conference. The conference will allow participants to understand which role ports are playing in the field of energy, to assess how the changing energy landscape could affect the role of ports as nodes of energy and to discover what European ports are concretely doing to improve their energy efficiency.
DAY 1 will start with a keynote speech from George Stathakis (picture), the Greek Minister of Economy, Infrastructure, and Maritime Affairs & Tourism. This will be followed by an Energy Outlook from Tania Zgajewski, Senior Research Fellow, Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations and an outlook for European ports by Vincent Valentine, UNCTAD - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Dr. Peter de Langen, Owner and Principal Consultant, Ports & Logistics Advisory, SL, will then moderate the first session where panelists will dedicate some time to the changing of the global energy system and its consequences for Europe and its ports. He will give the floor to Anne Houtman, Principal Advisor, DG ENER, European Commission, Arturas Drungilas, Marketing Director, Klaipeda State Seaport Authority, John P. LaRue, Executive Director, Port of Corpus Christi Authority, Texas (US) and to Raf Bouckaert HSEQ Expert, President of the Steering Committee Environment and Energy at Flemish Chamber of Commerce and Industry, former Technical Service Manager at Bayer Antwerpen NV.
After lunch, ESPO’s Secretary General, Isabelle Ryckbost, will present ESPO’s position on the review of the 2011 Transport White Paper and Finbarr O’Sullivan, Managerial Advisor, Structured Finance Infrastructure / TENs, European Investment Bank (EIB) will analyse whether the EIB financial instruments are effectively an adequate tool for European seaports.
Later on in the afternoon, Bogdan Oldakowski, Secretary General Baltic Ports Organisation (BPO) will moderate session 2, which will tackle the new energy mix in transport and its consequences for European ports. This session counts on four renowned speakers: Carlo Raucci, Doctoral Researcher, UCL Energy Institute, Rob Winkel, Senior Consultant Sustainable Transport, Ecofys, Capt. Marc Nuytemans, FNI, Managing Director Exmar Shipmanagement NV and Hans-Peter Hadorn, CEO, Ports of Switzerland.
The first day of the ESPO Conference will be concluded with a Port2Port Hour, where participants will have the opportunity to learn more about existing energy efficiency projects in European ports.
DAY 2: Dimitrios Theologitis, Head of Ports and Inland Navigation, DG MOVE, European Commission will open the second day of the ESPO Conference with a session dedicated to Europe’s decarbonisation agenda. Four panellists will assess what this could imply for European ports by shedding their light on the topic: Eva Kaili, Member of the European Parliament, Hari Dattatreya, Global Director Oil, Koninklijke Vopak, Dr. Bart Kuipers, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and Wim Stubbe, Project Leader BEPPO (Blue Energy Production in Ports).
Last but not least, David Whitehead OBE, Director British Ports Association (BPA) will moderate the European Policy debate. Fotis Karamitsos, Deputy Director-General, DG MOVE, European Commission, Knut Fleckenstein, MEP and rapporteur on the Port Regulation, Elissavet Vozemberg and Miltiadis Kyrkos, both Member of the European Parliament will discuss the port regulation proposal and its latest state of play. We expect rapporteur Knut Fleckenstein to give participants a preview of his draft report.
In each of the sessions, all panellists will enter into a direct debate with European ports and the audience will have the possibility to ask questions. Moreover, participants will have another chance to have their say as the voting system of last year will be back. These three aspects will surely make this conference interactive and give participants space for opinion!
Theodoros Dritsas (picture), Deputy Minister of Economy, Infrastructure, Maritime Affairs & Tourism will close the conference with a keynote speech, before leaving the floor to the host of the ESPO 2016 Conference.
To “oil” the conference, the usual networking moments and dinners are foreseen as well as a visit of the Port of Piraeus.
For the late birds among you, it is still possible to join ESPO 2015 conference. Check out our conference website, reserve your seat and book your flight now: Athens is waiting for you!
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