The ICAT and Port are jointly organising the 5th Tarragona Port Law Conference

The Tarragona Bar Association (Il•lustre Col•legi d'Advocats de Tarragona - ICAT), and the Tarragona Port Authority have jointly organised the Port Law Conference for the fifth year in a row, with some eighty people attending this year.

The Conference, which was held on December 1st in the morning in the conference room of the ICAT, was opened by Mr Manel Albiac, Dean of the Association, and Ms Yolanda Vizcarro, General Secretary and Director of Legal Services of the Tarragona Port Authority. Both agreed on the importance of the need for those working in the legal professions in Tarragona to keep their knowledge constantly up to date in this specific matter. Vizcarro voiced his appreciation for the close collaboration between the ICAT and the Port of Tarragona in achieving the consolidation of these prestigious conferences.

The inauguration was followed by the various presentations. The first of these, entitled 'Competitive concurrency in the procedures for granting concessions in the port’ was given by Mr Alejandro Hernández del Castillo, Public Prosecutor on leave and lawyer for GVA & ATENCIA.

The second talk was by Mr Enric Martínez Sastre, Territorial Head of the Southern Ports Area of the Generalitat and Director-Coordinator of the Catalonia Ports Plan 2030, who focused on the new Catalonia Ports plan. Also presented were papers such as "The content and limits of the Regulation for Operation and Policing of marinas: the particular case of the Empuriabrava Marina", by Mr Xavier Soy i Ros, partner at Pareja & Associats Advocats and "The reform of the legal system for the port freight handling service: Royal Decree-Law 8/2017, of May 12th" given by Mr José Antonio Morillo-Velarde del Peso, Public Prosecutor and Head of Legal Advice of the Public Agency State Ports.

The conference was finally closed by Mr Josep Andreu i Figueras, Chairman of the Port of Tarragona, who highlighted the importance that being able to count on legal professionals who were specialists in the field of port law had for company development. He stressed the importance of this conference having reached its fifth edition, thereby highlighting the value of this legal specialty. He also highlighted the great work carried out jointly by the ICAT and the Tarragona Port Authority in consolidating this top level conference. Andreu ended his speech by thanking the attendees and with a firm commitment to making a great port which would accommodate many experts in Port Law.