The increased internationalized competition as well as the evolvement of the
transport industry as a whole, has a significant effect on quality and safety management for
the ports around the world and more specifically in Europe. Quality is a complex and
subjective concept, incorporating at any given time the expressed and implied needs of all
those involved. Over the last two decades, new security and safety risks have been
introduced by the European Union for the ports in Europe. These include new safety and
security regulations for environmental as well as for other important aspects of the port
operations. This paper explores ideas involved in quality and safety EU policies through a
qualitative review of the literature. The qualitative analysis aims at a. to investigate
contemporary issues for quality and safety/security systems integration within European port
industry and b. to provide evidence for the interrelation and integration of quality and
safety/security standards. Furthermore, benefits and pitfalls of the different quality and
safety approaches are discussed while further study directions are provided