Europe should adopt a more global approach when it comes to shipping in order to improve its competitiveness, the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) suggests.
As the European Union’s current maritime strategy expires in 2018, the continent has to get ready for the new decade, ECSA secretary general Patrick Verhoeven said during European Shipping Week (ESW).
As TradeWinds reported last week, ECSA commissioned Deloitte to conduct a study of its competitiveness, which showed that other maritime centres around the globe are rapidly growing.
Verhoeven said: “I think this study underlines there is a direction missing, the global one.
“If you want to be successful as a shipping region, it is not just about being a tax heaven, you also need quality and skills.
“The good news is that we do not need any dramatic changes, there is already a good basis that has to improve.”
Deloitte benchmarked the EU against Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Vancouver and Shanghai, noting some of the advantages of each location.
Niels Smedegaard, ECSA president and DFDS boss, said: “The stakes are high and we hope we are armed with this study to develop a new EU maritime strategy with high ambitions for the next decade.
“Shipping in Europe is huge for the regional market but it’s also very important on a global level.
“We want to sit down with the European Commission and work together to create something which is time-proof with the ambition to invest and create more jobs.”
