18 May 2016
\nToday, top executives from European shipyards and European maritime equipment manufactories met Karmenu Vella, Commissioner responsible for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.
\nThe meeting took place in Turku (Finland) in the margin of the annual European Maritime Days and was organised jointly by SEA Europe \u2013 the association representing the interests of European shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers \u2013 and its Finnish member \u2013 Finnish Maritime Industries.
\nThe meeting focused on various topics of common interest, including the economic and strategic importance of the European maritime technology industry for Europe, its economy and globally; the challenges and threats of the European maritime technology sector and the means to stay ahead of global competition.
\nAttention was also drawn to the contribution of the European maritime technology sector to DG MARE\u2019s plans for international ocean governance and reference was made to the EU\u2019s plans to recycle ships in accordance with the EU Ship Recycling Regulation and the role that European ship recycling facilities could play. Also the possible contribution of European shipyards to a circular economy, i.e. building environmental neutral ships, was referred to.
\nFinally, both Commissioner Vella and the industry\u2019s top executives acknowledged the need for Europe to continue developing a highly skilled workforce. This allows the European maritime technology sector to stay ahead in terms of innovation and competition globally.
\n“The EU’s blue economy is amongst the most competitive in the world while meeting some of the highest environmental standards\u201d, said Commissioner Vella. \u201cThe European shipyards sector builds some of the most sophisticated vessels in the world. European maritime equipment manufacturers are global leaders. We also have an emerging marine renewable energy industry with great potential for further growth. Today\u2019s meeting highlighted that the EU’s blue economy can make a major contribution to jobs and growth”, he added.
\nKjeld Dittmann, Chairman of SEA Europe and CEO of W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4 Lyngs\u00f8 Marine A\/S in Denmark said: \u201cI firmly believe that today\u2019s meeting helped us to place SEA Europe and our industry on the map and the European Commission to better understand the difficulties and challenges of our industry. At the same time, it assisted us to have a better understanding of the Commission\u2019s political challenges and enabled us to identify how we can contribute to the Commission\u2019s ambitious agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
18 May 2016 Today, top executives from European shipyards and European maritime equipment manufactories met Karmenu Vella, Commissioner responsible for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n