Today, the European Commission published its long-awaited European Industrial Maritime Strategy, aimed at \u201creinforcing Europe\u2019s maritime manufacturing capabilities and technological leadership\u201d. This landmark initiative responds directly to the calls made by the European maritime manufacturing industry via the Shipyards\u2019 & Maritime Equipment Association of Europe (SEA Europe) Manifesto of April 2024 and further detailed in 22 concrete recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers are strategic industrial assets. They underpin Europe\u2019s maritime and naval security, strengthen its industrial resilience, and drive its maritime and blue economy. Yet despite this critical importance, the industry has been largely overlooked in EU industrial policy for decades. Meanwhile, global competitors have heavily supported and subsidised their shipbuilding industries as strategic instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To maintain their position in a globalised market, European maritime manufacturers must be able to benefit from appropriate European policies. The situation had first been recognised in 2024, when Commission President Ursula von der Leyen entrusted Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas with the task of developing a European Industrial Maritime Strategy \u201cto enhance the competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of Europe\u2019s maritime manufacturing sector\u201d. Today, that political commitment has become reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SEA Europe and its members welcome this Strategy as an unprecedented achievement<\/strong>: a decisive recognition that maritime manufacturing matters for Europe\u2019s strategic autonomy, economic security, defence, trade, sustainability, innovation, resilience and competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This being said, the Strategy is not an end in itself. It is a starting point, and an ambitious one.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In its 2024 Manifesto, SEA Europe set a clear objective: to supply and retrofit 10,000 sustainable and digitalised vessels in Europe by 2035 across our lead markets. These include cruise ships, naval vessels, other complex and high-value vessels, short-sea shipping, inland navigation, and maintenance, repair, conversion and refrofit activities. The new Strategy provides meaningful instruments to accelerate innovation, scale up industrial capacity, and position Europe as the global leader in next-generation shipbuilding and maritime equipment manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe particularly welcome the Strategy\u2019s strong focus on stimulating both supply and demand\u201d, said\u00a0Christophe Tytgat<\/strong>, SEA Europe\u2019s Secretary General. \u201cCreating incentives for shipowners to choose European shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers, whilst offering access to finance to stimulate investments in modern, efficient, innovative and sustainable ship production processes, within a mutually beneficial European preference framework in high-value and emerging segments, is essential to ensuring that Europe\u2019s industrial capabilities remain competitive and future-proof\u201d, he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the industry\u2019s representative, SEA Europe will now focus on ensuring that industry stakeholders are ready to seize the new instruments introduced by the European Commission.<\/strong>\u00a0We and our members are available to facilitate a pragmatic and business-driven dialogue between shipowners, investors, policymakers, and industrial players within the newly established EU Industrial Maritime Value Chains Alliance and other collaborative platforms created by the Strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The European Union has taken a decisive step. The task ahead is implementation. The European Industrial Maritime Strategy must be transformed into tangible industrial growth, technological leadership, and strategic resilience for Europe\u2019s maritime industrial base and therefore maritime future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, the European Commission published its long-awaited European Industrial Maritime Strategy, aimed at \u201creinforcing Europe\u2019s maritime manufacturing capabilities and technological leadership\u201d. This landmark initiative responds directly to the calls made by the European maritime manufacturing industry via the Shipyards\u2019 & Maritime Equipment Association of Europe (SEA Europe) Manifesto of April 2024 and further detailed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"2854,2047,1464,1352,1548,2672","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"em_industry":[],"em_theme":[80,88],"class_list":["post-3448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","em_theme-eu","em_theme-sea-europe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n