Brussels, 03/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is preparing a mid-term assessment of its maritime transport strategy. A public consultation was opened on Wednesday 28 January on the strategy which was presented in 2009 and will run until 2018.
The Commission is looking to gather the views of maritime transport stakeholders with regard to the objectives pursued by the strategy and what could be done over the coming years to achieve them. The initiatives of the strategy relate to the conditions to be established to ensure the competitiveness of the European shipping sector in international trade. The strategy also seeks to address the need for additional labour in the sector, to improve the activities of the European Maritime Security Agency and to enhance European involvement in major international bodies, such as the International Maritime Organisation and the World Trade Organisation. It aims, too, to promote short-sea shipping and, for instance, by means of surveillance platforms, online interfaces (eCustoms, eFreight) and subsidy programmes (TEN-T, Marco Polo).
The results of the public consultation, which will run until 22 April, will feed into the Commission's mid-term review of the strategy. The comments gathered will be added to the Transport Council position agreed on the initiative of the Greek Presidency in June 2014 (Athens Declaration, see EUROPE 11074) and two studies currently being carried out by the European Commission, one on global trends in maritime transport and the other on short-sea shipping. (MD)