On 4 March 2026, the European Commission adopted a new EU Industrial Maritime Strategy and an EU Ports Strategy aimed at strengthening competitiveness, sustainability, and security across the maritime sector.

The Industrial Maritime Strategy focuses on reinforcing Europe’s global leadership in shipbuilding and shipping through investment in innovation, digitalisation, and decarbonisation.

The Ports Strategy addresses the role of ports as critical infrastructure for trade, energy, and security. It sets up a comprehensive framework to step up the competitiveness, resilience, security and sustainability of Europe’s ports. Among the five priorities figures also the support for protecting and securing EU ports. In this context, the Commission proposes measures against organised crime and cybersecurity risks. New initiatives will include:

• Establish frameworks for third-country port risk assessments and for background checks for port workers;
• Update and revise guidance on emerging threats;
• Improve alignment of customs controls across EU ports together with better security protocols worldwide;
• Establish a new forum designed to facilitate the exchange of best practices among Member States' cybersecurity and port authorities.
• Carry out an EU-wide security risk assessment to identify the most pressing cybersecurity risks and measures to mitigate them.

Together, the strategies aim to modernise the sector, support the green transition, and reinforce the EU’s economic security, with implementation overseen by a new high-level Maritime Industries and Ports Board. The measures with regard to security build on the European Ports Alliance private-public partnership - an initiative that was launched in January 2024 to strengthen cooperation between European ports in the fight against organised crime and drug trafficking (→eucrim 1/2024, 30).