The European Shippers’ Council (ESC) represents the freight transport interests (import and export and intra-continental, by all modes of transport) of business in Europe, whether manufacturers, retailers or wholesalers – collectively referred to as shippers.Members are drawn from national transport user organisations/shippers’ councils, a number of key European commodity trade associations and corporate members.

The Council represents the vast majority of goods distributed by sea, road, rail, inland waterways and air. ESC, based in Brussels, acts as the “eyes and ears” for its member organisations – the national shippers’ councils - in respect of EU legislative activity. Equally it functions as the mouth-piece for shippers in Brussels. It has the dual role of gathering and feeding back vital intelligence on current and future EU policy developments and directly lobbying for ESC positions vis-à-vis the European institutions. It does this in close co-operation with its members.