The first meeting of the newly formed Cruise and Ferry Port Network (CFPN), that is set up within the European Sea Port Organisation (ESPO), took place in Brussels on Jan. 29 under the presidency of Stavros Hatzakos, General Manager of Piraeus Port Authority and Honorary President of MedCruise.

The CFPN was established in November 2014 and brings together the associations of European cruise ports. The associations that took the initiative to launch the Network, ESPO, Cruise Baltic, Cruise Europe, Cruise Norway and MedCruise, welcomed at the meeting Cruise Britain that joined the Network as well.

Among the attendees, MedCruise President Carla Salvadό highlighted the importance of the Network for the members of MedCruise.

During the meeting, the participants exchanged ideas on the best way to achieve a major upgrade of cruise and ferry ports representation towards the European institutions. The members thoroughly discussed the main goals and activities of CFPN, while they planned the best way forward towards developing the foreseen ESPO Code of Practice for cruise and ferry ports.

With the European Commission launching a Pan-European dialogue between cruise operators, ports and coastal tourism stakeholders, the members of the network discussed the priority items to be addressed during the kick-off event scheduled to take place in Brussels on 5-6 March 2015.

During the meeting, participants had the opportunity to discuss with a European Commission representative (DG MARE) the EU initiatives on cruise and coastal tourism, while they were updated on the results of recent studies that affect the cruise sector.