Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani handed out the first ESPO Award on Societal Integration of Ports to Fernando Menendez Rexach, President of the Port Authority of Gijón. The Award, a wooden sculpture designed by the Belgian artist François Schuiten, was given during a festive ceremony held at the Brussels Town Hall on 4 November. The port of Gijón won the Award with the project “Gijón Port and City Together”. It was selected because of the port authority’s long-standing strategy in managing the societal integration of its port, because the many different initiatives involved in this strategy matched all the categories and criteria set out for the Award and because these initiatives form a true catalogue of inspiration for many other port authorities.

“We were very much impressed by the 30 applications that were received for the first edition of the ESPO Award”, said Jury Chairman John B Richardson, “They represent an enormous diversity, but above all a clear determination of the port authorities concerned in making the added value of their port visible to their local communities.”

The shortlisted ports for the Award were Algeciras, Genoa, Ghent, Gijón, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Turku. Apart from selecting Gijón as winner, the Jury also decided on two special mentions:

• one for the Port of Genoa and its innovative project Genoa Port Centre, an interactive port information centre which will open this week and which the Jury believes to be an example for many other ports
  
• one for the Port of Ghent and its successful project Ghent Canal Zone, which the Jury found to be a best practice case of stakeholder management

The ESPO Award on Societal Integration aims to promote innovative projects of European port authorities that improve societal integration of ports, especially with the city or wider community in which they are located. In this way, the Award wants to stimulate the sustainable development of European ports and their communities. The call for proposals for the 2010 edition of the Award will open on 4 January and will run until 4 June.

Details of all project applications can be found on the ESPO website www.espo.be