European Community Shipowners' Associations
The European Community Shipowners' Associations ('ECSA), were formed in 1965 (then under the name Comité des Associations d'Armateurs des Communautés Européennes (CAACE)). In 1990, the ECSA has taken its present name. It comprises the national shipowner associations of the EU and Norway.
The ECSA is an inter-trade organisation. It represents interests of its members towards EU institutions (i.e. the EU Commission), single countries or groups of countries) and towards international institutions (i.e. United Nations / International Maritime Organization ; International Chamber of Shipping).
ECSA works through a permanent secretariat in Brussels, a Board of Directors and a number of specialised committees (they are named "committee", "working group" or "Task force", i.e. 'Safety & environment Committee', 'Air emissions working group', 'Piracy Taskforce').[1]
The ECSA is recognized by the European Institutions as the representative body of the European shipping sector. ECSA is registered in the Commission’s Register for Interest Representatives since 23. June 2008.[1]
Main political areas are:
- European Commission DG TRADE [2]
- European Commission DG CLIMA (Climate Action)[3]
- European Commission DG ENVI (Environment) [4]
- European Commission DG EMPL (Employment)[5]
- European Commission DG TAXUD (Taxation and Customs Union) [6]
The ECSA describes its aim as follows: Its aim is to promote the interests of European shipping so that the industry can best serve European and international trade and commerce in a competitive free enterprise environment to the benefit of shippers and consumers.
Member Associations
(in alphabetical order)
- Royal Belgian Shipowners' Association [7]
- Bulgarian Shipowners' Associations [8]
- Danish Shipowners' Association [9]
- Estonian Shipowners (Estland)
- Finnish Shipowners' Association
- Armateurs de France [10]
- Verband Deutscher Reeder (Germany) [11]
- Union of Greek Shipowners (Greece)
- Irish Chamber of Shipping (Ireland)
- Confederazione Italiana Armatori [12]
- Lithuanian Shipowners
- Fedilshipping (Luxemburg)
- Malta International Shipping Council
- Koninklijke Vereniging van Nederlandse Reders [13]
- Norwegian Shipowners' Association [14]
- Polish Shipowners' Association [15]
- Associacao de Armadores da Marinha de Comercio Rocha de Conde D'Obidos (Portugal)
- Slovenian Association of Shipowners
- Asociacion de Navieros Espanoles (Spain) [16]
- Swedish Shipowners' Association [17]
- UK Chamber of Shipping [18]
- Joint Cyprus Shipowners' Association
Many of the ECSA members are as well members of the ICS (International Chamber of Shipping).[19]
Other
The European shipping industry is controlling 40% of the global merchant fleet and is active in all kinds of maritime services within Europe, between Europe and third countries and in so called 'cross trades' between non EU continents.[1] About half the EU shipping activity took place (2012) outside the EU in cross trades.[20]
According to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, the world total number of merchant ships of 1,000 Gross Register Tons or over was 30,936. In 2010, it was 38,988 (= + 26%). [21] Statistics for individual countries are available at the List of merchant marine capacity by country.
Until December 2013,Juan Riva was President of the ECSA. Then, Thomas Rehder (until then "Vice-President") was chosen to be President of the ECSA.[22]
External links
See also
- International Chamber of Shipping
- Shipping Federation
- International Maritime Organization (the United Nations agency with responsibility for the safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment)
- UNCTAD review of maritime transport (annual UNCTAD publication)
References
- 1 2 3 http://ec.europa.eu (pdf)
- ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/trade
- ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/clima
- ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/environment
- ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/employment
- ↑ Taxation and Customs Union
- ↑ www.brv.be
- ↑ http://bsa-bg.com
- ↑ www.shipowners.dk
- ↑ Homepage only in French (May 2013)
- ↑ www.reederverband.de
- ↑ www.confitarma.it
- ↑ www.kvnr.nl
- ↑ www.rederi.no
- ↑ www.polshipowners.pl
- ↑ www.anave.es
- ↑ www.sweship.se
- ↑ www.ukchamberofshipping.com
- ↑ www.ics-shipping.org/membership.htm
- ↑ Annual Report, p. 10
- ↑ www.cia.gov (2010), www.cia.gov (2010 figures)
- ↑ ECSA elects Thomas Rehder as new President