Securing Europe’s Ports: From Fragmentation to a Common Approach
Europe’s ports are critical gateways for trade, mobility, and increasingly, for complex security threats. Yet when it comes to searches and security procedures, practices across the EU remain fragmented. CoESS’ upcoming report, “Securing Europe’s Gateways: Security and Searches Procedures Across EU Ports”, sets out to change that by turning operational insights into actionable recommendations for policymakers and practitioners alike.
Based on surveys and stakeholder interviews across European ports, the report highlights a key issue: differences in legal mandates, tools and operational practices are creating gaps in security.
At a time when threats are hybrid, fast-moving, and organised across networks fragmentation is no longer sustainable. As underlined in the presentation it takes a network to fight a network.
Seven Priorities to Strengthen Port Security
The report identifies seven strategic pillars to improve searches and security procedures across EU ports:
- Access control and entry screening
- Legal authority and role clarification
- Competence through training and certification
- Smart technology and standardisation
- Information sharing and intelligence use
- Unified multi-agency coordination
- Capacity building for vulnerable ports
Together, these pillars provide a practical roadmap, from frontline operations to governance. Beyond diagnosis, the report delivers concrete recommendations, including:
- Establishing minimum benchmarks and tiered compliance
- Strengthening public-private cooperation, including Port Security Committees
- Moving procurement towards best value—not lowest cost
- Expanding the use of private security capabilities (e.g. detection dogs, drones, behaviour detection)
- Enhancing joint training with law enforcement
- Improving access to shared intelligence and technology platforms
- Ensuring no port is left behind, including smaller and inland ports
One of the report’s strongest messages is clear private security is underutilised. When properly integrated, trained and empowered, it can significantly strengthen:
- Search procedures
- Detection capabilities
- Operational resilience
But this requires:
- Clear legal frameworks
- Defined roles
- Quality standards
- Stronger integration into the wider security ecosystem
The report ultimately makes a strategic case: Europe does not need to start from scratch. It needs to connect what already exists, and scale what works. Better alignment, shared standards and stronger cooperation can transform fragmented practices into a coherent, resilient security system across EU ports.