30 September 2026, at the Connecting Europe Days, Godfried Smit, the ESC Secretary General, highlighted the essential role of ports in European supply chains and the need to ensure that the flow of goods is matched by a secure and efficient flow of data.
More than 85% of goods handled in this context are transported by vessels, making ports a critical part of Europe’s supply chain ecosystem. But goods are also accompanied by increasingly large amounts of data.
For Europe, this means finding the right balance:
🔹 Data security: datasets should be stored safely, preferably within the EU.
🔹 Interoperability: systems across the European ecosystem should be able to communicate with each other.
🔹 Proportionality: regulatory measures should be proportionate and introduced according to a clear timeline.
🔹 Trade facilitation: efforts to strengthen security should not lose sight of the need to facilitate legitimate trade.
🔹Smarter risk analysis: the EU should consider carefully which data are genuinely needed for risk assessment. As systems become smarter, it may be possible to achieve the same security outcomes with less data being provided.
A competitive and secure European supply chain will depend not only on moving goods efficiently, but also on ensuring that the data accompanying those goods can be shared securely, efficiently and intelligently.