EUROPEAN PORTS: POTENTIAL GATEWAYS TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

The current economic scenario is changing rapidly as it is influenced by many global phenomena. Future projections related to transport demand show the strengthening of Asian centrality in the world economy and the growing importance of the Mediterranean Basin making seaports a strategic assets. After analyzing the evolution of trade in European Union, the focus will move to the transport infrastructure policy: the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) and the Connecting Europe Facility. They will be discussed in detail, in order to understand how they have been implemented through years and how the funds are distributed between the different modes of transport. As a matter of fact, the main objective of this thesis is to understand the current transport infrastructure policy can be considered sufficient or not in view of the future global scenario reflecting the role of European ports as international infrastructure and gateways to global trade.