A European Port area project on economics and environment concentrating on self-ruling was initiated 4 years ago by 6 European Seaports of 5 European countries, receiving funding from the European Commission, DG 7 Maritime Transport, in 1997. The project started with 25 ports, 3 universities and several experts in the field of environment and provided a concrete follow up of the first Environmental Code of Practice for European Seaports. An international permanent network of ports and port industry was set up for the exchange of knowledge, solutions and experience, implementing solutions for environmental issues using web site technology, There are 75 participants from Western and Eastern Europe in the ECO Information network for the exchange of practical solutions for environmental issues and to share the experiences of implementation of these solutions. The project developed several management tools to assess and evaluate the environmental situation in an individual port (self-diagnosis method), to collect and transfer solutions (a database) and to facilitate communication between European ports. The policy conclusions and recommendations of this project come close to the intentions of new European policy, which is directed at self-rule in economic sectors in the field of the environment. The project has now developed further using IC-technology for international online assistance of experts by experts in implementing solutions for environmental issues in the maritime area of ports and in the port city area. For the covering abstract see ITRD E114174.
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