The initiative is supported by the European Commission - DG Tren.

History on ESN
In 1997 the first national shortsea information bureau was founded in the Netherlands. Soon after this, the Flanders region set up a shortsea bureau as well. It soon became clear that the promotion of the shortsea transport sector on a national basis was not enough to meet the requirements for a significant enhancement of this transport mode. The shortsea transport chain almost always begins in one country and ends in another therefore promotion and information within all European countries should ideally reflect this crucial characteristic of shortsea shipping. Not only is promotion on both sides of this chain necessary, it is crucial. Co-operation and communication is imperative in order to establish a level playing field for shortsea in comparison to all other modes of transportation. By the end of 2000 there were a sufficient number of countries, which had set up a shortsea promotion centre and the possibility of creating a shortsea network became achievable.

In December 2000 the existing bureaus met and decided the following:

The network should be a platform to exchange information and not a formal organisation with an office and staff. The existing bureaus would transfer their expertise to newly established centres. The shortsea network would develop a common internetsite. For an easier and cheaper internal communication, an intranet solution would be found. The name of the network would be called European Shortsea Network.

In order to approach the market with a common name, it was decided to use the same name in English for each national bureau, namely Shortsea Promotion Centre followed by the name of the country. In addition to this name the original name in the own country’s language will be kept. Also this was the case in the registering the national websites: www.shortsea.followed by the country code. For more information on the members of ESN, or the search engines for liner services and tramp vessels, link to www.shortsea.info.

For more information about the European Shortsea Network: www.shortsea.info