Today the annual meeting of the European Network of Maritime Clusters

On behalf of the European Commission, Christos Economou, Director of Maritime Policy and Blue Economy of the DG MARE, which reiterated its intention to involve ENMC in the dialogue with stakeholders related to the development of the strategy for the blue economy. Meetings will also be organized on the Blue Invest fund and European funding and, to this end, it is the importance of providing the statistical data of the Cluster.

The main themes of the sector were then examined. maritime union, starting with the need to significantly reduce co2 emissions from maritime transport in order to strengthen the modal transfer from road to sea, as well as changes of crew that still remain very problematic.

Speaking on behalf of the Italian maritime cluster, the President of the Federation of the Sea, Mario Mattioli, highlighted that before the pandemic there was a important growth of the sector, as evidenced by the data of the 60 Report on the Economy of the Sea showing that in Italy the economy of the sea, with a production of about 34 billion euro, accounts for 2% of national GDP and employs around 300,000 employees, directly and in related industries. Of course -- he specified - the pandemic has created many problems in the sector also if in all sectors there has been a strong response to demonstration of the fact that the maritime-port sector is a sector for the country's economy and for the life of the citizens' daily lives. Mattioli specified that, despite the difficulties especially in the sector passengers, there are tentative signs of recovery, both for cruises that for ferries, while the shipyards were able to continue in the their activities. The case of Italian boating is particularly special which, unique in Europe, managed to organize the Salone genoa boating that, in compliance with safety regulations, has had great success.

Laurence Martin, Secretary-General of the Federation of the Sea, recalled the project "Future-proof skills for the maritime transport sector" funded by the European Commission and managed by a consortium of 27 EU partners from 16 Member States members, including for Italy, the National Pole for training of professionals linked to the maritime cluster - ForMare, which aims to develop strategies to identify and meet the future skills needs of the maritime sector and attract more Europeans to work in the Maritime.