RESOLUTION A3-0111/93

Resolution on the European maritime industries

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the Commission's communication on the new challenges for maritime industries (COM(91)0335 - C3-0022/92),

-having regard to the final report of the Maritime Forum, and the conclusions of its four working groups,

-having regard to the Commission's communication on the maritime industries: Further steps for improving their competitiveness (COM(92)0490),

-having regard to its recent resolutions on maritime issues, and in particular, its resolutions of 22 November 1991 on Community industrial policy in the shipbuilding sector, 16 September 1992 on the environmental damage caused by oil spills from ships, 17 November 1992 on the environment and industrial competitiveness, 19 January 1993 on measures to regenerate and prevent the pollution of the Baltic and 21 January 1993 on the Braer tanker disaster,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinions of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection and of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A3-0111/93),

A.whereas maritime industries provide a large number of jobs in the Community for an estimated number of 2.5 m people in all the sectors concerned,

B.whereas 90% of the Community's foreign trade is carried out by sea,

C.whereas ships consume less energy per tonne carried and are more environmentally friendly than any other form of transport in terms of noise and air pollution,

D.having regard to the 'aggressive' policy of the USA and Japan, whose aim is to protect their industries from European competition,

E.whereas the European Community has a wide range of interests in the maritime sector and therefore joint action by the Member States and the industries is essential to achieve its objectives,

F.whereas a substantial part of the economy of certain Member States and their regions is heavily dependent on maritime industries, diverging significantly from the average level of dependence and therefore much more sensitive to the impact of any adverse developments,

Significance of the European Community's maritime industries

1.Emphasises that the European Community's various maritime industries are of great importance for the Community economy, both as major sectors in their own right and in terms of their significance for the development of the Community's trade, for its natural resource base, for its environment and because of the spill-over effects into a whole range of other industries and services. Further notes that the Community's maritime industries represent major sources of employment, and that this will remain the case in the future;

2.Notes that the situation of the Community's maritime industries varies greatly from one such industry to another but that there are a number of disturbing indicators as regards the European Community's position in some of the more important sectors, such as the sharp decline of the Community's share of the world fleet, and the percentage of newbuilding delivered to European owners being built at European shipyards, and the fact that the volume of EC controlled tonnage under foreign flags is now greater than that under EC flags. Believes that the European Community will have to address these problems if it is to retain its competitiveness and safeguard its industrial base;

3.Notes the central importance to all the various maritime industries of a strong European shipping industry. Considers that the benefits of a substantial fleet of ships registered in Member States and of large numbers of Community seafarers feed through into all the other related sectors, including shipbuilding and marine equipment manufacture, through providing important business in the domestic market and essential maritime skills. Notes further the strategic importance in defence terms of strong Community industries;

4.Rejects the distinction that is often made between sunset and sunrise industries, betweeen those which are in decline and those which are growing. Believes that it is very important to help stimulate the development of the emerging maritime industries such as deep sea-bed mining, thermal energy conversion, potable water production and construction of floating platforms, as well as of industries which are already more mature such as aquaculture. Considers, however, that the more traditional sectors such as shipbuilding and fishing should not be neglected, and that their competitive position can also be greatly reinforced if modern techniques are applied and if other appropriate measures are taken;

Need for an integrated maritime strategy

5.Regrets that the maritime industries have often been treated in a segmented manner, that their problems have been regarded as separate, that different, and sometimes conflicting policies have been applied to them, and that government responsibility towards them has been overly fragmented not only at national level but also within the Commission. Considers rather that there is a clear inter-relationship between most of the maritime industries and that many of the Community measures that need to be taken are horizontal in nature;

6.Insists, therefore, that there be an integrated and long-term Community strategy towards Europe's maritime industries incorporating fiscal, transport, environment and safety, natural resources, social policy, competition, R&D, and international policy aspects and within an effective, economically efficient, and democratic decision-making framework;

Protection of the marine environment

7.Points out, with reference to its resolution of 17 December 1992 concerning the tanker accident and oil spill off La Coruña and to its above-mentioned resolution of 21 January 1993 concerning the accident involving the oil tanker 'Braer', that the necessary and ecologically appropriate shift in transport from roads to waterways must not be allowed to lead to a shift in risks in the transport sector; the Community and Member States must therefore pay particular attention to preventing collisions by means of traffic guidance systems; in suitable cases pipelines (e.g. for the transport of dangerous goods) should be considered as an environmentally friendly alternative; oceanography has a particularly important part to play in this connection;

8.Takes the view, being aware of the growing importance of the sea as a resource base, living space and the most important buffer system in the global climate system, that the allocation of research and development resources must be linked to compliance with ecological criteria; this also extends to projects financed from the resources for military conversion, such as PERIFRA and KONVER, which are being allocated to maritime industries, for example; research funds for the maritime sector should be increased and entered in an appropriate budget title, and should encourage the use of renewable energy sources in particular, such as environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuels and nuclear power;

9.Calls, with reference to Article 130r(2) of the EEC Treaty, for an increase in preventive care of the environment under the maritime industrial policy; this can be achieved, for example, by quality control based on ecological criteria during the industrial manufacturing process; industry must be prepared to accept responsibility for environmental aspects under existing conditions; in addition, efforts must be made to improve safety provisions by the introduction of penalties and rules on liability;

10.Calls, in view of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3760/92 of 20 December 1992 establishing a Community system for fisheries and aquaculture and the Commission's report on monitoring implementation of the common fisheries policy (SEC(92) 0394 final), for stricter monitoring of fishing methods and better supervision of fishing grounds and for the development of fishing technologies that help to preserve stocks (e.g. through selective fishing); the use and operation of aquaculture must take environmental aspects into account;

11.Calls, in view of the evident inadequacy of port state controls by the Member States as a result of a shortage of funding and manpower, for considerable efforts to be made for the drastic and immediate tightening of supervision to ensure that the existing provisions on maritime safety are complied with;

12.Considers that in the medium term one appropriate way of providing effective supervision might be to group together the various existing state maritime institutions such as fisheries patrols, customs and water police into a European coastguard. Such a coastguard would also provide a future, linked to the implementation of environmental monitoring tasks, for military bases and installations hit by defence ministries' spending cuts;

13.Calls on the Commission, with reference to the 'Aegean Sea' disaster off La Coruña, to investigate the possibility of moving terminals for dangerous substances away from coastal or landbased sites out to sea, with the dangerous goods being brought to land by pipelines or on smaller ships;

14.Notes that the Commission has recently submitted a communication on 'a common policy on safe seas', on which a separate opinion will be delivered, and calls for maritime safety policy to be made an integral part of maritime industrial policy;

The Maritime Forum

15.Warmly welcomes, in this context, the establishment of a Maritime Forum of the concerned industries and services in order to examine the overall situation in the maritime sector, and to put forward recommendations for future action. Stresses that any action undertaken by the Community to promote European Maritime Industry must take into account the final report from the High Level Panel set up by the Maritime Industries Forum;

16.Considers that this Forum has provided for a broader base of cooperation between the different maritime industries on matters of common concern than has existed in the past, and that this has been the case, in particular, in the shipping and shipbuilding sectors, whose destinies are so inter-linked, and which have often had such differing strategies and objectives;

17.Believes that the final report of the Forum constitutes an excellent basis for future progress and, if properly follwed up, could result in the establishment of a coherent industrial policy for the maritime sector that could serve as a model for the establishment of horizontal industrial policies in other sectors;

Necessary follow-up action: Elements for a Community strategy

18.Welcomes the fact that the Commission has responded positively to the recommendations of the Forum, and has undertaken to take a number of steps to implement them;

19.Considers, however, that the Commission's response has not been sufficiently precise and that three particular sets of issues need to be addressed by the Commission in a much clearer manner:

-the initiatives that need to be taken at international level to open up competition on a reciprocal basis, to take firm action to protect the environment, to obtain more uniform and effective port inspections, and to clamp down on abuses of flags of convenience such as the use of substandard ships and crews,

-the steps that are to be taken by the Commission to ensure that its own internal organisation, and the many different Directorates-General involved, respond clearly to the imperatives of an integrated maritime industrial policy,

-the concrete measures that the Commission, after having obtained the agreement of the industries involved, intends to propose with regard to follow-up to the Maritime Forum and the industry panels and, in particular, whether it wishes to expand upon the existing Forum (which it talks about convoking on a yearly basis) through the creation of a Maritime Foundation or Agency;

20.Welcomes the initiative of the Maritime Regions and Interests to consider establishing a European Association of Maritime Regions to promote Community initiatives on the whole range of maritime issues;

21.Considers that the Commission should support this initiative, which is compatible with the spirit of the Maritime Forum, as long as it does not result in unnecessary duplication with the activities in the Forum;

22.Considers that the Commission, the Member States and enterprises should coordinate their policy to tackle more effectively problems such as eliminating technical barriers, distortion of competition and unfair pricing practices;

23.Believes that the following points should be included and pursued at Community level, while taking into account existing proposals, such as those concerning EUROS and maritime safety, for the maritime industry:

-an effective package of positive measures in favour of EC shipping, attractive enough to keep and/or bring back vessels in Member States' registers, in particular through introducing common arrangements for the fiscal treatment of shipping operations. These should include a flexible depreciation regime for the operation of ships and/or other measures to facilitate investment, and also appropriate income tax and social security alleviations relating to the employment of Community seafarers,

-provision of further background information, accident investigation reports, and statistics on which to base future initiatives, with analyses of the ecological, social and economic impact,

-a special qualification for ships' crews consisting of basic and further training, in accordance with technological progress, compulsory training in safety measures/equipment, the use of a single working language on board ship and in ship-to-shore communications, and compulsory quality control of management,

-an effective package of measures to protect the maritime environment, and to prevent future disasters such as that of the Braer and that in the Aegean Sea, including improved and stricter liability and safety rules governing vessels, crews and shipping lanes,

-integrated Community measures to promote short-sea shipping, which could help to reduce transport bottlenecks, reduce pollution and create additional economic activity and employment,

-an integrated Community research and development strategy, to promote environmental protection and safety, to stimulate new design concepts and enabling technologies, including the use of hydrogen technology, to examine the potential and to promote the development of emerging marine industries and of new marine resources, and measures to undertake appropriate demonstration projects, with particular regard to environmentally friendly supertankers,

-the establishment by the High Level Panel of a new panel to coordinate Community research and development strategy,

-support for the establishment of Community models and technical specifications for marine technologies in order to achieve economies of scale,

-examination of emerging manpower problems to ensure that Community seafarers enjoy once again attractive conditions of employment and are sufficiently trained to meet new requirements and to prevent the hiring of substandard crews,

-without prejudice to the ongoing discussions in the OECD on shipbuilding subsidies, examination of new means of promoting shipbuilding within the Community in an 8th shipbuilding directive and a vigorus follow-up to the proposals on financing made by the Maritime Forum,

-examination of the issues posed by the conversion of existing military yards to civilian use and the future outlook for military shipyards in general,

-ensuring that full account is taken within the Community strategy of the situation of the maritime industries of the EEA countries and of Central and Eastern Europe;

24.Calls on the Governments of the Member States to support and implement the above proposals, and the related recommendations in the final report of the Maritime Forum;

25.Considers that the 1993-1994 budget should provide adequate budgetary means to continue cooperation at the European level, and to implement the necessary Community measures to stimulate the competitiveness of the Community's various maritime industries;

26.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the Parliaments of the Member States.