EU Industrial Maritime Strategy

Key points

The EESC:

1. welcomes the adoption of the EU Industrial Maritime Strategy as an unprecedented achievement for the maritime sector;
2. welcomes the proposal to set up an EU Industrial Maritime Value Chains Alliance and a high-level Maritime Industries and Ports Board. This alliance must cover the whole industrial maritime value chain and include shipowners and workers’ representatives as stakeholders to involve them as far upstream as possible in decision-making;
3. welcomes the strategy’s objective of strengthening the competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the European maritime sector as a strategic pillar of the EU economy;
4. highlights the essential role of European shipping in ensuring energy, food and supply chain security and underlines the importance of preserving its global competitiveness, maintaining open markets and ensuring fair trade conditions based on reciprocity while avoiding protectionist measures;
5. supports the strategy’s vision of consolidating Europe’s global leadership in high-tech ships, maritime equipment, technologies and shipping, positioning Europe as a leader in emerging segments and strengthening its industrial position in strategic segments;
6. underlines the importance of ensuring the availability safe, sustainable, affordable, scalable and regulation-compliant marine fuels across EU ports and calls on the Commission to introduce binding obligations on fuel suppliers to guarantee the supply of compliant fuels;
7. fully supports the call for revenues generated under the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime to be reinvested in the maritime sector and supports the creation of a dedicated funding mechanism to accelerate decarbonisation;
8. stresses the need to facilitate access to competitive ship finance by reducing regulatory constraints, notably under the EU Taxonomy, and limiting administrative and financial burdens, including for SMEs;
9. insists on the need to facilitate access to finance – both public and private – to address the current difficulties faced by the maritime sector in accessing finance;
10. supports the strategy’s plan to facilitate a long-term pipeline of public procurement orders for EU/EEA buyers while preparing the maritime manufacturing industry to meet such demand;
11. highlights the role of the sectoral social dialogue committee (SSDC) in maritime transport and that in shipbuilding and ship repair in addressing labour, social and regulatory issues, including skills, working conditions and workforce development;
12. appreciates the strategy’s focus on access to skills and quality jobs and fully supports its proposals to identify skill gaps, to develop re/upskilling programmes, to map maritime professions, and to support the creation of a network of maritime higher education institutions and vocational training centres across the EU;
13. calls for EU rules to be aligned with international developments at IMO level once a global agreement is reached, as a lack of alignment could lead to regulatory fragmentation, double payments for the same emissions, and unfair competition, ultimately weakening both climate effectiveness and the global competitiveness of EU shipping.