The Chair of the Inquiry Commission on the Erika disaster, Georges Tourret, very much regretted that the EU has been incapable to create a genuine EU maritime space as intra-EU cabotage is seen as international shipping. Aware of the fact that this gloomy picture that was painted was only the sad reality, the S&D Group committed to call for urgent actions based on the proposals made by the ETF in its Manifesto on Quality Shipping. Thomas who insisted that this Conference should act as a wake-up call for all stakeholders concerned, primarily the EU co-legislators.Īt the seminar, along with MEPs, a number of key players – amongst them EU/national union representatives, national MP, academics, experts on maritime safety but also able seamen who are experiencing at first hand the devastating effects of deregulation – unveiled the inconvenient truth about work patterns in shipping which is taking place even in intra-community waters.
“ Cut-throat competition is threatening our seafarers and know-how, it pulls our social and wage conditions down” deplored MEP I. The conference has clearly indicated that the European Commission together with the European Parliament and the Council has to set sail to protect those that keep the shipping economy running every single day, namely our seafarers” he added. “ However, while we see for example in road transport that the cause for the erosion of social and labour standards is mainly the lack of enforcement and control of existing EU legislation, the root for the problems in shipping lies actually within the absence of strong EU social legislation” stressed TRAN Committee coordinator I. Social dumping is unfortunately a phenomenon that has spread across all transport modes.
Anderson recommended that, in the face of unbridled social dumping which turned European seafarers into an endangered species, time has come to establish a maritime space in which EU social legislation applies and where quality shipping is the rule in order to guarantee EU-based jobs and know-how.
On Wednesday 21 October 2015, the ETF and S&D Group co-hosted the seminar called “Ensuring a future for European seafarers”, which addressed the continuous deterioration of European-based seafaring jobs.
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