Sea europe, where danish maritime is highly active, welcomes the Transition Pathway for a green, digital, and resilient european transport industry

SEA Europe welcomes the Transition Pathway for the European mobility industrial ecosystem
published on 29 January by the European Commission. It is the result of a two-years “cocreation” process between industry stakeholders and policy-makers, to identify the
challenges, opportunities, and actions needed to lead the green and digital transition and
improve the ecosystem’s resilience.

SEA Europe was closely involved in the co-creation process and co-chaired the roundtable on
the waterborne sector. The Transition Pathway thus clearly highlights the maritime
technology industry’s “call for an effective EU maritime strategy to address the
competitiveness challenges of the waterborne industry”.

Christophe Tytgat, Secretary General of SEA Europe, commented, “The Transition Pathway is
an important acknowledgement by the European Commission that the maritime technology
industry is critical for the greening and digitalisation of the waterborne sector. It makes the
challenges clear: although the new economic activities in the blue economy constitute an
important opportunity for the European industry – which remains a global leader in complex
shipbuilding and in advanced maritime equipment manufacturing –, the European
shipbuilding sector is challenged by massive State aid in third countries, subsidized steel, easier
access to finance but also local content requirements favouring domestic production and other
forms of protectionism. The WTO framework and EU anti-dumping measures are not effective
in fixing this competitiveness issue.”

The European Commission now calls on industry stakeholders to “make pledges” in line with
the actions identified in the Transition Pathway. SEA Europe will act upon this call and continue
working closely with policy-makers and the other stakeholders of the mobility ecosystem
towards a vigorous EU maritime industry strategy.