The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) notes with alarm the growing evidence of the harmful effects of marine litter on marine biodiversity and the environment. At the global scale, it is estimated that nearly 80 per cent of marine litter originates from land-based sources. The rest originates from sea-based sources, including maritime transport which accounts only for a part of it.
“Although shipping has seldom been in the limelight, it never ceased to play a substantial role in Europe’s economy” commented Patrick Verhoeven, ECSA Secretary General on today’s release of the Oxford Economics study on the economic value of the EU shipping industry. He added: “The EU shipping industry continues to stay its ground in these hard times against fierce competition from third country shipping centres, particularly those in Asia and the Middle East. It remains today a world leader and an important source of revenue and jobs in Europe.”
As an addition to the ECSA position paper issued in October 2013 on the European Commission proposal for a CO2 MRV system on maritime transport, ECSA issued a position paper urging the EU legislators to refrain from extending the scope to ships above 400 GT and from including NOx/others GHG emissions which would respectively result in unnecessary administrative burden on small ships and in impractical monitoring issues in the proposed EU Regulation.
Those who think that all’s well with the Philippines’ maritime education and training (MET) system cannot be more wrong. A letter from the European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA) to its members dated 1st October 2012 bolsters the view that the world’s top crew supplier is not yet over the hump.
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Officer of the Watch 