It is an understatement to say that shipping plays an important role for the European Union (EU) and its member States given that over ninety percent of the Union’s foreign trade is transported by sea. It is conspicuous that in recent years the size of the EU fleet has increased considerably. As a part of the EU’s Common Transport Policy, the EU has also developed its own shipping policy elements of which continue to engender concerns in certain quarters given that shipping is largely a global activity. Be that as it may, a number of EU projects such as Short Sea Shipping and Motorways of the Sea in the context of the Trans-European Transport Network deserve positive recognition as models that can be emulated in other regions as part of their respective shipping policies. Against the above background, the principal purpose of this paper is to examine the viability of the newly adopted and signed Rotterdam Rules in terms of EU shipping policy in the field of multimodal transportation. The envisaged discussion in the paper will proceed from the perspective of typical European characteristics of shipping in light of the recognition that EU shipping law is in relative infancy and constitutes only a part of international shipping law. Added to this verity is the potential conflict between EU law and international shipping law leading to fragmentation that is undesirable. The focus of this paper is on the issue of whether the Rotterdam Rules is likely to resolve the problems of multimodal transportation in Europe or whether regional and national initiatives will continue to grow in parallel with the international regime. This is a crucial issue given that the EU is not a signatory to the Rotterdam Rules and is in opposition to it in several respects including the fact that much of trans-European movement of goods is on a non sea segment intermodal basis and the multimodal regime under the Rotterdam Rules is a maritime plus regime as distinguished from a door-to-door regime with or without a sea segment. The paper will conclude with the proposition that in formulating its shipping policy the EU should take into consideration the international obligations of its Member States and refrain from taking unilateral measures.