On 13-15 February, European dockers and seafarers met in Hamburg to discuss EU port and maritime policies. The matter discussed, was among others, the revision of the EU’s Consortium Block Exemption Regulation (CBER), which governs fair competition in the shipping sector.
The discussion resulted to the fact that in the light of the growing consolidation of the shipping industry and the pressure that shipping alliances put on ports, the CBER in its current form should be cancelled.
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ETF supports that port workers and seafarers are directly connected with one another. The federations states that both professions face changes due to emerging larger vessels, automation and consolidation of alliances in the shipping industry.
Participants also focused on the future entry into force of the Port Services Regulations and its possible impact on the workforce.
Moreover, they met with representatives of the Port of Hamburg in order to talk about the employer’s perspective.
Finally, organisations representing the main maritime logistics industry stakeholders, as well as EU national maritime authorities, met on February 8 in Paris to discuss about the EU Consortia Block Exemption Regulation. The associations attempted to assess the validity of the BER, which provides the liner shipping industry an exemption from normal competition rules.
