Main ports

According to the Directive 2009/42/EC they are ports handling more than 1 million tonnes of goods or 200 000 passengers annually. More data are to be collected for “main ports” than for other ports. However, the additional data may also be included by countries for smaller ports on a voluntary basis. Moreover, because of normal fluctuations in port activity, the thresholds are not automatically applied on a yearly basis to maintain the consistency of the series over time.