MAGPIE and PIONEERS conclude five years of innovation for greener European ports

Launched under the European Green Deal, the projects spent five years testing solutions for clean energy, alternative fuels, electrification, digitalisation and infrastructure in real port operations.

PIONEERS , coordinated by the Port of Antwerp-Bruges together with the ports of Barcelona, Venlo and Constanța, ran 19 demonstrations spanning clean energy, digital innovation and sustainable port design. MAGPIE , coordinated by the Port of Rotterdam, tested 14 solutions across the same themes with its partner ports, HAROPA PORT, Sines & DeltaPort.

From demos to practice

Both projects have now packaged their results into tools any port can use. PIONEERS' Green Port Master Plan Handbook Explorer offers a free, five-step method, covering a port's current footprint, its 2050 vision, external pressures, proven innovations and a roadmap, alingside a carbon-footprint methodology and a test to identify the main barriers to transition.

MAGPIE's Green Innovation Compass is an open knowledge platform bringing together knowledge of innovative technologies, operational concepts and digital solutions that can support the transformation of ports and port-related logistics. Together, these tools form the practical core of the Green Port Master Plan delivered to the Commission.

From pilots to scale

"Five years of PIONEERS have shown that technologies exist, knowledge exists, and the partnership exists too. The challenge now is to scale what works across Europe," said Rob Smeets, CEO of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. He stressed that testing alone is not enough: ports now need to tackle the regulatory, financial and organisational barriers around each innovation, and to act as orchestrators bringing industry, energy, logistics and government together.

"Five years of PIONEERS have shown that technologies exist, knowledge exists, and the partnership exists too. The challenge now is to scale what works across Europe," Rob Smeets, CEO of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.

We are in this together

"Europe needs to bring innovations from pilots to practice faster. MAGPIE shows how this can be done through structured European collaboration," said Boudewijn Siemons, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam. He also highlighted the need for new ways of attracting private and corporate capital into port innovation, including through the EU financial-market framework.

"Europe needs to bring innovations from pilots to practice faster. MAGPIE shows how this can be done through structured European collaboration," Boudewijn Siemons, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam

The European policy perspective was underlined by Han ten Broeke, Head of Cabinet to EU Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra, who opened the conference, and by Isabelle Ryckbost, Secretary General of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO): "The world is in transition: ports have to operate in a rapidly changing climate and a turbulent geoeconomic and geopolitical global environment. This calls for new thinking on how the port ecosystem can strengthen its resilience."

Europe has a key role to play

The afternoon's five Learning Labs - on competitiveness and digitalisation, energy transition, port security, access to finance, and social cohesion - mirrored the five pillars of the EU Ports Strategy, adopted by the European Commission in March 2026, and explored how these lessons translate into practice across ports, cities and industry.

Speaking in the Learning Lab on Access to Finance & Investment, Thiago Tavares, CINEA Project Adviser, highlighted that the main challenge is often not the technology itself, but the gap between a successful demonstration and the conditions needed for adoption at scale:

"A pilot can prove a concept within a few years. But full deployment in a port ecosystem often depends on permitting, procurement, energy connections, vessel adaptation, and alignment between stakeholders."

"EU funding helps to take innovation from research to demonstration and de-risk deployment - but scaling requires predictable investment, viable business models and commitment from industry and other levels of government," Tavares added.

"EU funding helps to take innovation from research to demonstration and de-risk deployment - but scaling requires predictable investment, viable business models and commitment from industry and other levels of government," Thiago Tavares, CINEA

With the Master Plan and its tools now public, PIONEERS and MAGPIE leave a legacy that can help ports across Europe make the transition to greener and more resilient operations and, in doing so, shape the future of Europe.

Background

MAGPIE and PIONEERS are part of the the "EU Green Deal Ports and Airports" projects, alongside airport projects STARGATE , TULIPS , and OLGA .

Working together as two highly active project clusters, these initiatives demonstrate how coordinated EU action is accelerating the green and digital transition efforts of ports and airports. Through large-scale demonstrations, strategic collaboration, and practical solutions spanning alternative fuels, clean energy hubs, smart mobility, and digital operations, they have delivered impact that extends well beyond the individual flagship projects.

As the projects draw to a close, their legacy reaches far beyond the innovations they have delivered. Equally important are the cross-sector partnerships tney have forged, the replication pathways established, and the strategic roadmaps they have developed for the future. Collectively, these projects have strengthened the role of ports and airports as drivers of innovation and climate-neutral transport, while providing valuable experience and inspiration for future initiatives to build upon.

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