CSC president joins debate on shipping competitiveness, decarbonisation, digitalisation

The President of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, Themis Papadopoulos, took part in the deliberations of the European Shipping Executive Symposium, ‘Shaping the Future of the EU Maritime Transport Cluster’, which was held in Florence, on May 4-5.

Papadopoulos was invited to take part in the top-lecvel meeting at the behest of EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc.

The symposium focused on the review of the existing legal framework of the EU Strategy for Maritime Transport, which is essentially a technical exercise with a strong emphasis on a number of priorities until 2020, which were adopted in March this year through a political declaration made in Valletta by European Transport Ministers. Priorities include competitiveness, decarbonisation, digitalisation to ensure global connectivity and an efficient internal market and a world-class maritime cluster.

Top management executives from EU-based shipping companies, ports and related industries gathered together to reflect on possible scenarios for the coming decades, including business models, patterns of trade and marine technologies. This provided an opportunity for the Commissioner to receive first-hand insight from industry experts on the main trends affecting the EU maritime cluster, the main political, economic and technological developments that will have an impact as well as longer-term actions the EU can undertake to help the maritime transport cluster meet future challenges and exploit opportunities.