Book excerpt: During the 1990s there were two major developments to the Common EU Maritime Transport Policy (CMTP): the establishment of European Union policies on safe seas and on shortsea shipping respectively. This book critically analyzes and appraises these and other developments to the CMTP in this period, while also studying policy Europeanization. It focuses on both the economic environment of maritime transport and the interaction of policy makers and organized interests during the policy-making process, with an emphasis on the political dimensions. By developing an innovative economic model, the book examines the ways in which governmental and non-governmental policy makers and their ideas interact within the EU's structure and dynamics, and shows how these factors account for why, when and how the specific common EU policy has developed.