The Port of Brussels is Belgium’s second inland port, and only a 5-hour sail from the Port of Antwerp. Its quays stretch for 8.67 km, along the waterway that crosses the Brussels region from north to south. As an urban port, able to receive both inland and sea-going vessels and offering trimodal solutions to the port companies situated in the port area, the Port of Brussels plays a vital role supplying the City of Brussels with building materials, energy products and consumer goods. The port area is also an important hub for circular economy, where waste flows originating from the urban population are collected and recycled as secondary materials. Since its creation in 1993, the port traffic has increased by 50% to a level of approximately 5 million tonnes of waterway transport, thus saving 96.000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year and reducing the number of lorries on the road by some 2.000 each day. The port cluster is home to 350 companies and provides employment, either directly or indirectly, to almost 8,000 people. As a port operator, the port is also responsible for maintaining the canal and its infrastructures.

The Port of Brussels was one of the founding members of the European Federation of Inland Ports in 1994. The Port of Brussels has always played an active role within its organisation, and is represented within the presidency holding one of the five vice-president seats. In the first years of its existence, EFIP was also physically based in the offices of the Port of Brussels. Over the past 30 years, EFIP has played an indispensable role for inland ports by defending their interests at the European level and by giving visibility to the important role inland ports play within the European unified markets. Also, as a networking organisation, EFIP has established strong ties between inland ports in Europe, thus recognising the mutual interests inland ports have and facilitating the exchange of good practices and knowledge between them.

The Port of Brussels is looking confident to the future, firmly believing inland waterways have a huge unused potential for shifting traffic from the road to the more sustainable modes of transport. The re-activation of the rail connection to its outer harbour in 2024 will create new opportunities for continental rail transport to the Belgian capital city. The ongoing works for extension of container handling capacity in the outer harbour attracts investments from private terminal operators to the port with the ability to offer Value Added Logistics services to their clients. The focus for the near future is to extend the port area by developing a trimodal carbon neutral logistics zone in Schaarbeek and the redevelopment of the TIR Logistics zone as a city hub for urban logistics. Regarding its role in the economic transition of the region, the Port of Brussels aims to become fully decarbonised by 2050.