Assarmatori and Confitarma urge to modernize the Navigation Code

The Code - said Sisto - is "an eighty-year-old in splendid shape, a marathon runner conceived by extraordinary masters of the law of our country, to which, however, we cannot ask to run the 100 meters of today's competition in the seas of Europe without careful care of simplification and de-bureaucratization, accompanied by a reform of governance of navigation. We can no longer allow our ships to discount a competitiveness gap compared to the others because we have a Code that is affected by his age". The general director of Confitarma highlighted the need of a modernization of the legislation also aimed at "countering an inevitable flagging out to be able to compete with the others more flexible and shipping friendly flags».

"The modernization of the Code - continued Sisto - is fundamental and affects our armament but also ours administration since in a few weeks the fleet dedicated to international traffic, in consideration the imminent adaptation of the current system of rules to what is provided by the European Commission with the decision of the June 2020 on the extension of the benefits of the International Registry community flags ( of 11 June 2020, ed). The advantages built over the years by Confitarma - warned Sisto - will favor flags such as Malta, Madeira, Cyprus, which have a very administrative apparatus leaner than ours. The need for reform of the Code is equivalent to the need to claim and strengthen the maritime nature of our country".

"There certainly exists - agreed Alberto Rossi - the the need to address the issue of competitiveness of the Italian flag, but I would say of the maritime cluster of the our country as a whole. With two themes to always keep well Present. The first - explained the secretary general of Assarmatori - is to integrate the Code of the Navigation with the principles of the European Union, sanctioned by the Regulation 352/17, and I am therefore referring to the necessary protection of competition, also underlined by several judgments of the Court of Justice. The second concerns the energy transition, which is also part of the most topical issues. It must be an intelligent path, which rests on the pillars social, economic and environmental sustainability. One transition precisely, not a revolution that risks reaping victims in the maritime class and also in the port class. I refer to the "Fit for 55" package which, as also pointed out by the Senate's EU Policies Committee in a recent resolution, risks infringing the principle of proportionality, going to impact in a much more substantial way on a country, like Italy, which boasts the largest island population of the continent and, consequently, the largest fleet dedicated to these links. Finally - Rossi noted - the inclusion of the shipping in the mechanism of emission certificates (ETS), will entail a relocation of transhipment trades, over which we therefore risk losing control to the benefit of the North African ports, with all that goes with it in terms of also for the protection of employment and the safety of traffic and supplies'.