The international jury that has to select the winner of the first ESPO Award on Societal Integration of Ports met this morning in Brussels. The jury, which is chaired by John B Richardson , intensively discussed the 30 project applications that were submitted for the Award. The jury came to the conclusion that the submissions of the ports of Algeciras, Genoa, Ghent, Gijón, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Turku made the most favourable impression and were therefore selected for the shortlist.
“The quality of the applications received was outstanding”, said John Richardson, “this is very encouraging and shows that more and more port authorities care about social integration of their ports. The great diversity of projects however made our work extremely challenging and took us through an intensive process of deliberation this morning.”
“We will now be putting a number of precise questions to these ports so that we can pass a final judgment”, concluded John Richardson.