The president of the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) and vice president of the association of Mediterranean ports MedPorts, Gerardo Landaluce, participated this week in the European Parliament in the hearings convened to listen to the various economic and social agents about the implementation of the Pact for the Mediterranean, the strategic initiative of the European Commission aimed at deepening cooperation with southern Mediterranean partners.
Landaluce has participated on behalf of MedPorts, the association that groups together about thirty port authorities from the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean and manages approximately 70% of the cargo and 90% of the traffic in the entire Mediterranean basin. The presence of ports in this parliamentary forum responds, as explained by the president of the APBA, to the growing importance that port infrastructures have acquired in defining European Union policies.
The ports increasingly have a much more important role in defining European Union policies. We are strategic assets, especially in this time where geopolitics and geoeconomics are so important for our lives,” Landaluce pointed out, emphasizing the need for the voice of the port sector to be heard in the process of implementing the Pact.
The Pact for the Mediterranean was presented by the European Commission and the High Representative on October 16, 2025, and received political support from the foreign ministers of the member states at the X Forum for the Mediterranean held in Barcelona on November 28, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration. The initiative represents a step forward in deepening cooperation and strengthening the EU's relations with its southern Mediterranean partners, the ten countries of the southern neighborhood: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia.
The Pact focuses on areas of mutual interest and seeks to create a connected, prosperous, resilient, and secure Common Mediterranean Space, structured around three pillars: people as engines of change, sustainable and integrated economies, and security, preparedness, and migration management. The initial Action Plan for its implementation was scheduled for the first quarter of 2026, and the hearings in the European Parliament in which Landaluce participated are framed within the consultation process with the agents involved in its deployment.
The president of the APBA has taken advantage of his participation to demand that European policies do not create traffic deviations between ports, but rather contribute to developing a joint competitiveness environment for the entire Mediterranean. What needs to be developed is a joint competitiveness environment for the entire Mediterranean because we are a fundamental element in the policy of implementing the Pact for the Mediterranean,” he affirmed.
This demand is in line with the position that the APBA has been maintaining in European forums, where it has alerted in recent months about the effects of the emissions trading system (EU-ETS) on the competitiveness of community ports. At a session held in Brussels last February, Landaluce conveyed his concern before representatives of the European Commission and DG CLIMA regarding the possible diversion of up to 7.4 billion euros in investments towards ports of third countries in the European environment.
Landaluce has also linked the participation of ports in the Pact for the Mediterranean with other European initiatives such as the Global Gateway, in which the Port of Algeciras actively participates with projects like the Green and Digital Corridor with the Panama Canal and the digital interoperability project with Central America, both integrated into the EU's global connectivity strategy.
MedPorts was created in June 2018 and currently groups together 31 port authorities and 4 port training centers from all shores of the Mediterranean. Among its members are ports like Algeciras, Barcelona, Valencia, Marseille, Tanger Med, Alexandria, and La Spezia. The association works to promote cooperation among the ports of the Mediterranean basin in areas such as sustainability, commercial development, and training.
Participation in these parliamentary hearings takes place in a context where the foreign ministers of the nine southern EU member states (MED9) met on April 9 in Split, in the presence of the Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Šuica, at a time of instability in the region marked by military conflicts in the Middle East. At that meeting, the ministers emphasized the strategic importance of the Mediterranean as a node of connectivity between global markets and welcomed the Pact as a framework for a more structured partnership with the southern neighborhood.