The following projects of the Port of Cartagena, Guadeloupe Port Caraïbes, North Sea Port and Port of Vigo have been shortlisted for the 15th edition of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) Award on Social Integration of Ports.

The independent jury of experts and specialists on the theme of the Award, chaired by Dimitrios Theologitis selected these four applications from a total of ten submissions on the theme of this year’s edition: “Nature restoration projects in ports benefitting the local community”.

The ESPO Award 2023 will go to the port managing body which has developed innovative ways to develop these new roles and combine port development with successfully protecting and restoring nature in and around the port area to the benefit of the citizens and local community.

The winning project will be a project which can clearly demonstrate how nature protection and restoration efforts can be successfully combined with port development projects.

This is the 15th ESPO Award and will be handed out by Herald Ruijters, Deputy Director-General at DG MOVE, European Commission, during the traditional ESPO Award Ceremony and Dinner taking place on 7 November at the Art and History Museum in the Cinquantenaire in Brussels.

The ESPO award ceremony will be celebrated together with the 30th anniversary of ESPO. The shortlisted projects will be presented on the ESPO website in the coming weeks and all ten submissions will be presented in a special brochure to be published on 7 November.