31 posts
SEA BASIN APPROACH: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
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Number of View: 145Sea basin strategies: joining forces on environment, tourism, transport, energy and research and innovation One of the key-messages I delivered, speaking at the Royal Palace Foundation Symposium “The North Sea: past, present...
ERIKA: LEARNING THE LESSON
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Number of View: 112Almost 13 years ago, the Erika oil tanker sank off the coast of Brittany, causing a major environmental disaster. Last week, the French Cour de Cassation confirmed the civil liability of the certification company, the ship’s owne...
GROWTH OUT OF THE BLUE
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Number of View: 80Are you surprised by the growth potential of European maritime economy identified by the Blue Growth study? The marine and maritime economic sectors already employ well over 5 million people and account for a gross value added of
Greek Shipping Gets a Free Ride
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European countries provide Greece with tens of billions of euros in aid, yet accept that the cash-strapped country cannot for the moment collect tax receipts from its large shipping industry because of the low tax regimes across the Continent, writes...
Another benefit of the shale gas revolution: A bright and clean future for shipping
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The M/S Viking Grace - to be delivered in January 2013 from the STX Finland Turky shipyard - will be the largest passenger ferry to operate on liquefied natural gas (LNG), making it the most environmentally sound and energy effic...
Waiting for the "modern world´s first 100 per cent fuel free sailing cargo ship"
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The World Maritime News tells us that "Development is underway to design the modern world’s first 100 per cent fossil fuel free sailing cargo ships":With rising fossil fuel prices and the global challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this...
Spanish take action against Pirates
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They must be remembering the Barbary coast but the actions of SPS INFANTA CRISTINA seem to be interesting.Operating with the EUNVFOR, that is the nacsent EU navy off the coast of Somalia the ship which has been the subject an attack by pirates i...
Maritime safety: new EU rules to 'name and shame'
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New rules to enhance and improve the safety performance of ships were adopted today by the European Commission. The rules will introduce, from January 1st 2011, a new online register to "to name and shame" shipping companies which are performing poor...
The Commission urges the Member States to prevent maritime piracy
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The European Commission today adopted a recommendation addressed to the Member States to ensure the effective application of measures for self-protection and for preventing acts of piracy and armed attacks against ships. These measures – known as '...
Migrants at Sea
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The EU is considered by some as the stronghold against outsiders, especially those whose fishing grounds we have emptied with our trawlers and whose agriculture we have held small with cheap products thanks to excessive agricultural subsidies. With...
To rule the waves again?
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With the rise of an increasingly multipolar world, the time has come for Europeans to invoke their maritime geography once again and look beyond their borders to concentrate on the wider world. The European Union needs to form an immensely powerful n...
Towards a European regime of sea border rescue operations?
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How is it possible to avoid conflict of competences between Member States concerning the surveillance of maritime borders in the south of the Mediterranean, as well as possible conflict concerning the responsibility to rescue vessels in danger or to...
European Union: Marine safety standards
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Besides proposing Community legislation, acting as guardian of the treaties, administering various EU programmes and functioning as the competition and internal market watchdog of the European Union, the Commission makes subsidiary laws in limited ca...
Somali Piracy - Part 2: Al-Shabaab as the Solution
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Piracy was born as a reaction to the illegal dumping of toxic waste along the Somali coast and to the exploitation of Somali waters by western fishermen. The number of piracy attacks is believed to have escalated due to the actions of the most radica...
Pirates!
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It is harder to enforce the law at sea than on land. The notions of territory and sovereignty are applied in a different way. There are two current news stories that illustrate this principle.First, there are the ships in the Indian Ocean sailing p...
Somali Piracy - Part 1: Issues of International Law
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Many strategic experts believe that the international anti-piracy fleet operating in the Gulf of Aden would have to number more than 500 ships in order to effectively police the 600,000 square mile Gulf region, a number which others believe would sti...
Maritime safety: prevention of accidents
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On 11 March 2009 the European Parliament finally approved the third package of measures for maritime...
The maritime geopolitics of Eurasia
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Please click on the play button below to watch! And press the pause button for some of the longer blocks of text. • A version in ‘High Quality’ can be viewed on Youtube. This will make the text clearer. For any regular readers who have not...
EU TFEU: Land, sea and air transport
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The EU Treaty of Lisbon continues to make a distinction between rail, road and inland waterway, to which the TFEU Transport Title applies, and sea and air transport, still treated as optional with regard to EU legislation.***Article 100 of the Treaty...
