The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has provisionally granted more than 9.62 million euros to 28 transporters, shippers, and logistics operators under the third call for aid of the maritime eco-incentives program of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The goal of these subsidies is to promote the international transport of goods by sea as a sustainable alternative to road transport. The announcement was published today in the Official State Bulletin.
The beneficiaries of the aids embarked, in different periods ranging from May 8, 2024, to March 31, 2025, their trailers, semi-trailers, or rigid heavy vehicles on ships instead of exclusively using the road to transport the goods to their final destination. The number of subsidized shipments has exceeded 132,000, distributed across 11 maritime routes or services connecting six Spanish ports on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts with other countries in the European Union.
The routes have traveled through the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic arc, always linking one Spanish port with another from a community member state, and have always had a real alternative by road, including those that involve crossing channels or straits. Specifically, the services have departed from the ports of Barcelona, Bilbao, Sagunto, Santander, Valencia, and Vigo heading to ports located in Belgium, France, Ireland, and Italy.
The eco-incentive has been calculated for each unit embarked and journey made based on the savings generated in Spain in external costs, understood as those derived from greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric pollution, congestion, accidents, and noise. Additionally, the environmental performance of the ships has been taken into account according to their capacity, average occupancy, type of fuel, emissions reduction system, speed, emissions in port, and maritime distance.
