The EU challenge to make its ports more sustainable and competitive: The case of the Green Ports Project for the Port of Naples

Today European ports have moved beyond their traditional role as logistical gateways to become strategic infrastructure for energy, supply-chain resilience and urban development. In this context, port competitiveness can no longer be understood only in terms of logistical performance but must be assessed within a governance model capable of integrating environmental sustainability and territorial resilience. Against this background, this research reconstructs the European framework on port competitiveness and sustainability and analyses its effectiveness in shaping governance conditions and supporting sustainability-oriented projects. In particular, Regulation 2017/352 and Regulation 2024/1679 are examined as legislative acts that establish an institutional bridge between competitiveness and environmental objectives. This approach is further strengthened by the 2026 Communications on the EU Ports Strategy and the Industrial Maritime Strategy. The research adopts a qualitative methodology grounded in regulatory assessment, combining a multi-level legal analysis of the EU and Italian frameworks with an explanatory case study focusing on the Port of Naples and its involvement in the Green Ports Project under Italy’s Recovery and Resilience Plan. To better understand the case study, the article first examines the evolution of Italian legislation on port competitiveness and sustainability: from Law No. 84/1994, which promoted reforms to reshape the Italian port system, to Legislative Decree No. 169/2016, which created Port System Authorities and introduced the Energy and Environmental Planning Document. The research argues that, despite the impact of these reforms, pronounced governance fragmentation is still compromising the development of a sustainable strategy for the port and the surrounding city.