This study on the potentialof Short Sea Shipping (SSS) in Europe, with a focus on four corridors, consists of four parts. In the first part (Chapter I) the existing intra-European SSS-traffic is identified and analyzed for each relevant category of goods and transport corridor. In the second part (Chapter II), a new methodology is proposed for the strategie analysis of the competitive position of SSS vis-à-vis transport altematives. This methodology is applied to ten case studies with substantial policy relevanee within the corridors under consideration. The third part (Chapter III provides an analysis of the potential offour 'innovative' types of SSS-vessels, namely fast cargo ships, sea-river ships, selfunloading bulk carriers and selfunloading and -loading unitload ships. Finally, in the fourth part (Chapter IV), ten major policy recommendations are formulated to guide EU-policies in the area of SSS.