The EU’s business-friendly policy pitch is positive for shipping, if it works
- The EU’s strategic policy plan promises reduced red tape, de-risked clean fuel investment and puts shipping at the heart of growth plans
- Key policies in pipeline include: Sustainable Transport Investment Plan, Clean Industrial Deal, European Port Strategy and Industrial Maritime Strategy
- Barriers to shipping taking advantage of the policy plans include questions regarding available funding, political reforms and national government support amid geopolitical and macro-economic headwinds
The European Commission has laid out its policy plans for the next five years promising to help turn the continent’s economy around and shipping finds itself playing a central role. But while the direction is positive, the detail required to answer the difficult questions is yet to emerge
SLASHED red tape, de-risked investment for low-carbon fuels and a centre-stage nod of political support for shipping as a key driver of European Union prosperity, is all positive news for shipping.
The question is whether the detail of the EU’s policy agenda for the next five years, set out by EC president Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, is ultimately going to materialise in tangible action for industry.
Much of the detail of shipping-specific policies has not yet emerged. A European Port Strategy and an Industrial Maritime Strategy are both due out “imminently”, while a Sustainable Transport Investment Plan is expected to set out plans to stimulate investment in sustainable low-carbon transport fuels, but not until the third quarter of the year.
In the meantime, however, the high-level blueprint for how Von der Leyen wants to direct the EU during her second term has been broadly, if not cautiously, welcomed by shipping industry representatives as a positive step in the right direction.
The plan, dubbed the Competitive Compass, effectively charts Europe’s course through an increasingly stormy global economy by outlining dozens of planned measures and strategies to raise productivity through innovation and to decarbonise European manufacturing.
It comes as a response to the reports released last year by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and former Italian premier Enrico Letta that described the scale of the continent’s economic woes and proposed how to fix it.
Many, but not all, of those prescriptions have made it into EC’s 2025-2029 programme where key themes of cutting red tape for business, doubling-down on the technologies of the future and favouring European companies in public procurement all dominate.
The good news for shipping is it remains visible as a policy target, with specific strategic plans in the works for the entire maritime sector.
Essential role of shipping
The new Competitiveness Compass makes an explicit reference to the essential role of shipping to the European economy and the need to keep European shipping internationally competitive.
In terms of specifics, the new simplification approach and the commitment of the commission to reduce reporting burdens by at least 25% for all companies and at least 35% for SMEs, which are the backbone of the European shipping industry, have been widely welcomed by shipping industry representatives.
“This is really good news from the commission,” said Danish Shipping chief executive Anne Steffensen, adding the telling caveat “if it is actually realised this time”.
“A 25% reduction in administrative burdens will have a clear effect on shipping companies’ costs for implementing EU regulation, and there are high expectations for faster approvals for, for example, the construction of offshore wind and solar farms,” Steffensen continued.
The new measures promise to de-risk investment in renewable energy and the production and distribution of renewable and low-carbon transport fuels. These steps are crucial for Europe to establish itself as a maritime energy hub, but until the detail emerges with some of the specific strategies, notably the new Sustainable Transport Investment Plan, little can be done to action those intentions.
There are also bigger concerns about where the financing is going to come from and whether the simplification of rules and regulations will mean cutting back new climate-friendly regulations.
Von der Leyen insisted on Wednesday that the EU was “staying the course on the objectives of the European Green Deal” and that climate targets would not change. The commission even rearranged some paragraphs while drafting the Competitiveness Compass to emphasise innovation and decarbonisation.
The green transition of traditional industry, with shipping specifically namechecked in the report, and the expansion of new, climate-friendly technologies are at the heart of this high-level blueprint. But the more detailed measures on how to achieve that will not be available until next month’s Clean Industrial Deal is published on February 26.
Once that detail arrives, however, there are still going to be wider questions about how effective this bid to turn around the region’s sluggish economy will really be without the required funding, political reforms and national support.
Even before US President Trump started threatening tariffs, the EU was mired in a crisis of confidence over its economic competitiveness with growth falling behind the US and China.
Spurring new investment will require previously entrenched divisions over finance reforms including the decade-long debate over a Capital Markets Union to be overcome. It also relies on national governments unlocking spending — not easy given that the big economic powerhouses of France and Germany are both struggling with debt and deficits that could worsen if trade tensions with China and the US increase.
So far little of those concerns have been addressed directly in the EU blueprint.
“We have a plan, we have a road map. We have the political will. Now, what matters and really matters is speed and unity,” said von der Leyen, pitching the vision to boost innovation, push on with decarbonisation and secure energy supplies and trade flows.
The immediate response from Bruegel, a prominent economic think-tank, summed up the response when it’s review of the plans said that she had failed to adequately answer questions such as how to shift to green energy without preventing a “collapse of Europe’s energy-intensive industries”, how to marry economic security with foreign policy, and how to cut red tape “without creating environmental and financial risks”.
For now, the shipping industry’s response appears less critical of the detail yet to come and more positive on the direction of travel.
“The Competitiveness Compass highlights that Europe’s security depends more than ever on our ability to innovate, compete and grow,” said ECSA secretary-general Sotiris Raptis.
“It also lays out a pathway to a competitive industry by closing the innovation gap and by investing in clean tech and clean fuels. The shipping sector is an essential part of our economy’s energy transition and we welcome [this] explicit recognition of shipping as a key sector to Europe’s growth”.