Tag: ECSA

ECSA President Niels Smedegaard stated that shipping, being clearly a global contributor to carbon emissions, together with all other industry sectors, must be part of the solution to limit the increase in global temperature.

ECSA has called industry to support responsible ship recycling in Alang following its recent trip to the country where it had the opportunity to witness first-hand the important investments made in a number of ship recycling yards to ensure compliance with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.

ECSA’s Maritime Security Working Group conducted a meeting on 18 May in Rome,hosted by Confitarma, the Italian shipowners’ association, and joined by representatives from the European Commission and Frontex.Migratory challenges remain one of the main security concerns of EU shipowners, as discussed by security experts.

Ship recycling practices in Alang, India, are gradually improving. The European Commission should acknowledge this positive development under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. Adopting an overly restrictive approach will discourage first movers and further delay the entry into force of the IMO Hong Kong Convention.

The African economy has become one of the most promising global growth markets. Shipping is taking care of the largest part of international trade and in Africa this is even more the case due to less developed land infrastructure. European shipowners strongly believe that maritime services are enablers of trade and development, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

ETF and ECSA are extremely concerned about the recent Court decision in the Prestige case as it unexpectedly overturned the judgment by the Provincial Court of La Coruña (Galicia) which had yet cleared both the Master, Captain Apostolos Mangouras and the Chief Engineer of criminal responsibility. Also, ICS strongly criticized the court judgement during a meeting of IOPCF last week.

European shipowners believe that the three priority areas of the new EU Arctic Policy Communication published by the Commission this week address all topical Arctic matters. Climate change and environment, sustainable development and international cooperation in the Arctic are equally important.

IMO's 69 section of Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) is in progress. The basic features of a global CO2 data collection system have been agreed upon and further work on CO2 reduction commitments from shipping has been outlined.

European shipowners hope that the momentum created by the Dutch Presidency’s High Level Event on Short Sea Shipping held in Amsterdam last February will result in maritime directors putting Short Sea Shipping on the top priority list when they meet today in Brussels.

EU Transport and Environment Ministers meet 14-15 April in Amsterdam for an informal joint Council meeting . The agenda features a discussion on how Member States could make a positive and constructive contribution to achieve an international framework of CO2 reduction commitments.