On July 21st, 2025, FEPORT President Mr Gunther Bonz and Ms Mona Hyldgaard Møller, General Secretary of Danske Shipping – og Havnevirksomheder (Danish Shipbrokers and Port Operators’ Association) participated to the second Ministerial meeting of the European Ports Alliance Public-Private Partnership in Copenhagen. The European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, co-hosted the meeting, alongside the Danish Presidency of the Council. The event gathered EU Commissioners, EU Ministers and Senior Officials from enforcement agencies as well as key stakeholders from the private sector.
Commissioner Brunner gave a keynote during which he highlighted that the launch of ProtectEU sets out an ambitious agenda for the protection of EU ports too.
The expansion of the scale of the Alliance represents a great opportunity as it means an increase in the number of ports covered by the public-private partnership including those of Norway and Switzerland. It also means doing more on the other two pillars of the Alliance: the customs pillar and the law enforcement pillar. It is only by expanding in scale that we will stop the so-called ‘waterbed effect’, where criminals shift their activities to smaller ports, or use chemical concealment to make it harder for us to detect cocaine, for example.
The second way we build on our success is by expanding the scope of our work on Ports. Stopping drugs trafficking will be only one aspect of our wider EU Ports Strategy. As part of our work on preparedness, we also need to think about how best to protect port infrastructure from all types of security threats, including hybrid and cyber-attacks. Any further work on the Alliance must therefore be fully complementary to our work in ensuring that our EU maritime infrastructure is resilient and autonomous.
Ports also have an important role in bolstering the EU’s defence – we cannot forget that these are essential logistical hubs for the movement of soldiers and military supplies. A good example is the Port of Rotterdam, where the Netherlands has begun planning for the role Europe’s largest port might play in a potential conflict. This kind of comprehensive thinking enhances our overall security and preparedness.
Finally, we build on the Alliance’s success by integrating it into our wider efforts to protect the EU. For example, if the European Union Drugs Agency gathers new intelligence on the latest market trends, this can help us steer our detection efforts – for example from cocaine to synthetic drugs. But for information to lead our action, we need to actively collect, share and listen to it.
If Europol is seeing shifting patterns of supply from one Member State to another, this can help us prioritise our detection resources by investing more in the areas most at risk.
And if the Alliance is causing a shift away from commercial trade vessels towards submarines and speedboats, we need to work with Frontex and our border guards to close off those routes, too. A good example came from Ireland last week, where the authorities intercepted a 440kg shipment of cocaine that landed by speedboat from a mother vessel that came from South America. As we see here, criminals are constantly ready to react to enforcement activities – and we need to stay just as vigilant.
But for all of this to work, the most important factor is that we coordinate effectively. That is why I am asking EU Agencies to step up their cooperation with each other, and with their partners in the Ports Alliance. This should include, of course, the structured meetings such as this one, but it must go beyond this. We need a culture of picking up the phone and staying in touch, including with the local authorities. This involves proactively discussing any concerning changes in port business patterns or the physical environment of the ports. Sharing information should become a habit.
Mr Gunther Bonz, FEPORT President was invited to take the floor. He reiterated that a key lesson from recent years is that drug trafficking does not start at the port, it starts far upstream in the supply chain. Criminal networks exploit not only terminals, but also maritime routes, hinterland corridors, warehouses, and even digital systems.
Preventive action needs to reflect this reality. That includes improving container traceability from point of origin, encouraging earlier detection in the chain, and exploring more structured coordination with shipping lines, forwarders, and inland hubs. Prevention is not just about strategy, it’s also about means. Without dedicated public co-funding, the most advanced solutions risk remaining out of reach for many operators.
Criminal groups have increasingly shifted their attention to port workers, recruiting insiders, using threats, or offering bribes to gain access to information or cargo.
Protecting staff from this type of pressure is essential, not just for operational integrity, but for personal safety and human dignity. Some ports have already adopted good practices but these initiatives are not cost-neutral.
One recurring issue across Member States is the misalignment between the severity of trafficking-related activities and the legal consequences they carry. There may be value in exploring how legal frameworks could be better aligned with the operational reality at ports.
Similarly, the idea of creating a European Customs-Trade Partnership Against Drugs, inspired by the U.S. CTPAT model, could help formalise collaboration between authorities and compliant operators. This would require the involvement of both public and private actors and could bring operational and legal clarity to shared responsibilities.
A recurring challenge across all dimensions—prevention, protection, repression—is the clear financial imbalance between legitimate operators and criminal networks. It is essential that security-focused public funding mechanisms, including those under EU-level programmes, be made accessible to terminals, particularly for projects that go beyond minimum regulatory compliance and deliver concrete societal impact.
The European Ports Alliance has created important momentum and enabled valuable exchanges on shared challenges. However, given the scale and complexity of the drug trafficking threat, there may be merit in thinking beyond the current format. One option could be to evolve the initiative into a European Supply Chain Alliance Against Drugs, with a wider mandate and broader participation from upstream and downstream actors—not just terminals, but also shipping lines, freight operators, and relevant third countries.
