Tag: Mediterranean Sea

Says the merchant shipping industry The merchant shipping industry which in the past 16 months participated in almost 1,000 migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean welcomes the decision by EU leaders to triple resources of the Triton operation. The shipping sector similarly supports the commitment of EU Member States to deploy additional operational means, including vessels and planes, to achieve this objective at relatively short notice. But the fact that operation Triton remains within the mandate of FRONTEX, the EU border agency, raises serious questions about the extent to which these efforts will fully ensure the immediate prevention of further loss of life, which should be the absolute priority.In Brussels, Patrick Verhoeven, Secretary General of the European Community Shipowners Associations (ECSA) commented: EU leaders have agreed to increase resources and assets available for search and rescue operations, within the mandate of Frontex. Laudable as these efforts are, they still fall short of the scale and mandate of last year's Italian operation Mare Nostrum, which saved hundreds of thousands of people in 2014. What is needed immediately is a similar, EU-led, large-scale search and rescue mission, able to operate far from the EU territorial waters, which is where most of the ...

IMO Sec-Gen welcomes EU ten-point plan on migration

Launch a proper EU SAR operation to prevent the further loss of thousands more lives In advance of the emergency EU Council Summit (Thursday 23 April) to address the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, the European and global shipping industries insist that the urgent priority is for EU Member States to immediately launch a proper EU Search and Rescue operation with sufficient resources to prevent the further loss of thousands more lives.The shipping industry says that the decision taken by EU Foreign Ministers to bolster the FRONTEX-led Triton mission is a step in the right direction, but potentially falls short of the need for an operation with similar resources and geographical scope as the Italian Mare Nostrum operation which was suspended last year.Following the terrible tragedy last weekend, the shipping industry, the citizens of Europe, and the wider international community, expect the leaders of Europe to act decisively and to maintain the new momentum for something to be done.In Brussels, Patrick Verhoeven, Secretary General of the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) commented, "The shipping industry recognises that the underlying issues are very complex. But when dealing with the imminent life or death of thousands of people, fast and decisive action ...

The Secretary-General of IMO called for coordinated action to safeguard migrants

Merchant shipping industry repeats call for urgent and immediate collective action by EU member states

Citizenship Commissioner Avramopoulous presented a 10 point plan of the immediate actions to crisis situation in the Mediterranean

The CMA CGM Group announced the launching of MEDGULF Service

  FC Gas Intelligence has produced a report on the status and the prospects of LNG Bunkering in the Mediterranean area. So far Europe’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering activity has been focused around the north of the continent, Scandinavia and the Baltics. Pilot projects have developed in northern Europe, boosted by strong government support, infrastructure already in place and new environmental regulations, which came into force in January. There could also be huge potential to expand the sector in the Mediterranean for use in tourism and passenger ferries and to tap industrial and domestic gas demand in places which are not connected to gas grids. Whether the region reaches its LNG bunkering potential will depend on how expensive it is to build LNG-fuelled ships, whether the fuel is price competitive with traditional ones and whether the same environmental regulations in the north are applied to the Mediterranean as well. There are currently around 50 LNG-fuelled ships (excluding LNG carriers) in operation worldwide, while another 69 new building-orders are now confirmed, according to DNV GL – a maritime and energy sector advisory firm. They range from passenger ferries to tankers and platform supply vessels. DNV GL said the number of ...

Establishing a mechanism to enhance existing inter-agency communication Several United Nations agencies have agreed to establish a mechanism to enhance existing inter-agency communication with respect to the maritime aspects of mixed migration by sea.Agencies concerned about the loss of life, injury, trauma and serious human rights violations affecting migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees traveling by sea met in London last week (4-5 March) at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).Building on the Joint Statement on Protection at Sea in the Twenty-First Century', that was agreed during the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' Dialogue on Protection Challenges, held in Geneva on 10 December 2014, it was agreed to establish an interim, informal mechanism for enhancing inter-agency communication on the subject.The intention is that the mechanism would facilitate operational-level communication between relevant agencies bilaterally and multilaterally and provide a conduit for better informing the Global Migration Group (GMG) on maritime issues.Although precise details of the mechanism are yet to be finalised, it was envisaged that it might, for example, consider: the establishment of joint databases to share and collate information and statistics on irregular movements and suspect vessels; quantifying the effects of irregular and unsafe crossings on the shipping industry; improving ...

UN, IMO meeting on unsafe mixed migration by sea