The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has provisionally granted more than 9.62 million euros to 28 transporters, shippers, and logistics operators under the third call for aid of the maritime eco-incentives program of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The goal of these subsidies is to promote the international transport of goods by sea as a sustainable alternative to road transport. The announcement was published today in the Official State Bulletin.
The beneficiaries of the aids embarked, in different periods ranging from May 8, 2024, to March 31, 2025, their trailers, semi-trailers, or rigid heavy vehicles on ships instead of exclusively using the road to transport the goods to their final destination. The number of subsidized shipments has exceeded 132,000, distributed across 11 maritime routes or services connecting six Spanish ports on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts with other countries in the European Union.
The routes have traveled through the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic arc, always linking one Spanish port with another from a community member state, and have always had a real alternative by road, including those that involve crossing channels or straits. Specifically, the services have departed from the ports of Barcelona, Bilbao, Sagunto, Santander, Valencia, and Vigo heading to ports located in Belgium, France, Ireland, and Italy.
The eco-incentive has been calculated for each unit embarked and journey made based on the savings generated in Spain in external costs, understood as those derived from greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric pollution, congestion, accidents, and noise. Additionally, the environmental performance of the ships has been taken into account according to their capacity, average occupancy, type of fuel, emissions reduction system, speed, emissions in port, and maritime distance.
The maritime eco-incentive program is structured in three cycles covering from 2022 to 2025. In the first call, 6.8 million euros were granted for traffic carried out between September 2022 and March 2023, while in the second, 5.97 million euros were awarded for movements between April 2023 and March 2024. With this third resolution, the total amount allocated through the program exceeds 22 million euros in the three calls.
The subsidies are included in the aid program for companies for sustainable and digital transport of the PRTR and are part of the Safe, Sustainable, and Connected Mobility Strategy 2030. Its purpose is to enhance the share of maritime transport of goods, contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions, decongesting roads, and improving labor conditions for transport sector workers, including their work-life balance. The program also represents an indirect stimulus for shipping companies operating the subsidized services to improve the environmental performance of their ships.
This program, unique in Europe according to the Ministry, has been incorporated into the Regulation of the Trans-European Transport Network (RTE-T) in order to ensure its continuity and long-term consolidation once the Recovery Plan concludes.