Brussels, 12/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - European shipowners believe that the Athens Declaration is going in the right direction. They support a large number of the maritime priorities set out by European ministers for maritime affairs in this document, put forward at the end of their informal meeting on 7 May. This declaration will now require formal conclusions to be adopted by ministers at their Transport Council on 5 June.
The European Community Shipowners Associations (ECSA) emphasised what measures should be pursued after 2018 when the European strategy for maritime policy expires. European shipowners want standards to ensure fair international competition rules. In this context both shipowners and ministers would like state aid guidelines, “to maintain a stable and innovation-friendly framework, ensuring competitiveness of EU fleets… in a context of liberalised maritime services”. Shipowners also believe that member states should be able to, “offer fiscal incentives and other alleviations in a flexible manner, comparable to other world shipping centres”. Shipowners also highlight the need to transfer freight and passengers to maritime transport. The ECSA underlines the importance of supporting the change to adequate financial support for short sea shipping (Connecting Europe Facility and Motorways of the Sea). Shipowners also share the European ministers' point of view with regard to promoting maritime careers and draw attention to the demographic deficit this sector will have to face “without a new generation of seafarers, the whole maritime cluster stands to lose its base”. They call for a halt to the criminalisation of seafarers when maritime accidents occur and want the administrative burden on sea captains and officials to be reduced. They support dialogue on maritime social issues and demand that a single national platform is harmonised and interoperable throughout the EU. They are in favour of creating a genuine single maritime market and putting a stop to port access restrictions. The ECSA is in favour of concluding new free trade agreements and calls for the eradication of piracy, particularly in West Africa, where the EU is due to begin talks with different countries in an effort to carry out concrete action more quickly. (MD)