Today the European Parliament adopted its position on FuelEU Maritime, the proposed regulation on the use of renewable and low-carbon fuels in maritime transport to amend Directive 2009/16, position which will be soon discussed with the Council of the EU. A plenary session today in Strasbourg welcomed by the European Community Shipowners 'Associations (ECSA), although the association of European shipowners would need to be done more to facilitate the energy transition, the European Community Shipowners' Association said. and the decarbonisation of maritime transport.

For European shipowners, these goals can only be achieved by ensuring a wide availability of clean marine fuels at reasonable prices : "ensuring access to clean fuels at affordable prices," the Secretary General said. of the ECSA, Sotiris Raptis, reiterating the requests for time made by the association-it is an important challenge for the decarbonisation of shipping. Currently clean ones are the most expensive fuels and action is therefore needed to close the price gap. In order to achieve the objectives of the FuelEU, it becomes even more essential to allocate the revenue of the ETS to the sector (the system for the exchange of EU emission allowances, " ndr ) and the FuelEU. This, together with ensuring that fuel suppliers are responsible for the provision of clean fuels, is crucial to ensure that shipping can achieve its decarbonisation goals. "

In this regard, the ECSA particularly appreciated that today the European Parliament introduced the notion of the liability of the supplier of fuel when contractual agreements are in place between a fuel supplier and a company of navigation. In addition, the association of European shipowners appreciated the fact that the Parliament also adopted a more pragmatic approach on the supply of electricity from the ground to the vessels in the ports, cancelling the sanctions to the vessels in the case in which the infrastructure for cold ironing is not available in the port.

Also for the non-governmental organisation Transport & Environment (T&E), whose aim is the zero emission of emissions from the transport sector, believes-although for other reasons-that the position adopted by the European Parliament today is not sufficiently ambitious, even though Delphine Gozillon, T&E's responsible for the sustainability of maritime transport, rejoiced for the outcome of this passage in Parliament, so much to argue that "this is the beginning of the end for fossil fuels in the European shipping industry." For Renegotion, today's vote, offering the fuel producers the security needed to make investments, will give a boost to the production of hydrogen fuel. However, he pointed out referring to the vote in favour of imposing the obligation, starting in January 2030, to generate with the use of renewable fuel of non-biological origins at least 2% of the energy produced annually on board a ship, "2% percent will not be enough if we want to stay around 1.5 degrees," Gozillon said, referring to the global warming limit that climatologists deem necessary not to overcome. According to T&E, it would be necessary to raise this percentage to 6% percent in 2035. "The EU must be based on this and become more ambitious," Gozillon said. In addition, T&E reiterated the request, not granted by the European Parliament, to remove the guaranteed exemption to ride-hailing companies operating no more than three vessels, a limit that in fact-the organization underscored-would secure the exemption at 60% of the shipping companies.