O president of EENMA Charalambos Simantonis, participated in the meeting of the Water Resources Subcommittee of the Parliament’s Special Standing Committee on Environmental Protection chaired by the chair of the committee Dr. Dionísia Avgerinopoulou.
Mr Simantonis highlighted that maritime transport traditionally takes the lead globally and promotes the need to safeguard the environment through harmonized green initiatives and specifically referred to the importance of short sea shipping for Europe and Greece.
“Our Union has officially announced proposal to include the national transport fleet which represents, in the Recovery Fund for the green transition, as it is promoted for coastal navigation based on the plan presented by the NEE and the commitment of the YNANP thus expanding everyone’s objective of decarbonization, modernization and sustainability”, noted Mr. Simantonis.
Observed features: “The European Union highlighted short sea shipping as a sector of great importance, since, on the one hand, it ensures the transport of goods within and outside the Union, on the other hand, it is a reliable option to replace road transport and achieve the objectives of reducing the carbon footprint of transport by 60% in 2030, as well as shifting 30% of road transport over 300 km to other modes of transport.
The importance of the NMA in the Greek economy extends to several dimensions. Mainly, it ensures the smooth transport of goods and fuel to the islands, ensuring economic development and social cohesion, whilst, in addition, the operation and management of NMA vessels by shipping companies established in Greece, creates multiplier benefits for the Greek economy and especially for the port of Piraeus, which is the home port of these ships”.
The EENMA President continued by stressing that “however, the prospects for maintaining and strengthening the NMA in the Greek economy face significant challenges. The need to decarbonise transport and the EU and IMO targets are creating new conditions for maritime transport, affecting its competitiveness and creating conditions that risk an increase in demand for road transport, resulting in a departure from the emissions reduction target.
The country’s legislative framework that regulates the operation of the fleet, especially national transport, must be modernized and harmonized with the new data, in order to facilitate and promote the green transition, rationally dealing with the pathologies of the past and getting rid of the complex dogmatic policies of recent decades.
And this is extremely important, because the industry’s operating environment in recent decades has made short sea shipping uncompetitive, resulting in a huge reduction in investment, so that today we are talking about a national short sea shipping fleet made up of approx. 110 ships, 35 of which are general cargo with an average age of 45 years, while the rest are fuel transporters, with an average age of 35 years. Then you realize that the immediate need to modernize the maritime fleet is imperative.”
But he stressed that “the green transition period could be a golden opportunity to build new green ships, since short sea shipping ships travel short or specific distances, which gives an advantage to the application of the green transition and new technologies”. For example, they do not face the speed problem faced by coastal shipping that carries passengers, so they have the possibility of slow navigation, while the use of batteries is easier, as they can sail at reduced speed, covering shorter distances.
More generally, specific short distances, mainly national but also European, are both for ships and port infrastructures that are fertile ground necessary for a rapid implementation of the transition.
But all the new technologies required to create green ships dramatically increase the cost of their construction, so the political approach of states with the creation of new resources and the existence of available financial tools is a prerequisite and absolutely necessary for the Implementation” .