The current regulatory and tax framework of the European Union promotes the competitiveness of the European industry shipping; however there are ample areas to improve the positioning of the sector in the context of global competition to starting with narrowing the investment gap for adoption technologies and clean fuels for maritime transport, for the reduction of administrative burdens and for alignment with international industry regulations. This is highlighted by a study by the Deloitte on the competitiveness of European maritime transport which was published today by the shipowners' association European Shipowners in view of the "European Shipping Summit", an event that will be held tomorrow and the day after tomorrow in Brussels which was organised by the association together with the to over organizations in the maritime world.

Today European Shipowners also presented a study produced by CE Delft on behalf of the Value Association of European maritime transport, a sector that in 2024 consisted of 4,153 shipping companies and a fleet of 22,318 ships with a total gross tonnage of 556 million tons. Compared to the total gross tonnage of the fleet 44% of that of container ships is operated by European entities, as well as 35% of ships in the EU tankers, 33% of liquefied natural gas ships, 30% of bulk carriers, 29% of ro-ro vessels, 25% of vessels for the offshore industry and 21% of petroleum gas vessels liquified.

If from 2018 the consistency of the European fleet, then equal to 514 million GRT, has grown steadily, has on the other hand, its share with respect to the to the overall consistency of the world fleet which is fell from 38.5% in 2018 to 33.6% in 33.6% in 2024 when the world fleet consisted of 111,612 ships for a total of 1.65 million gross tons. The EU fleet - highlights the Deloitte study - is therefore growing constantly, but other fleets are growing more quickly. In this regard, the Secretary General of European Shipowners, Sotiris Raptis, stressed that, "in order for Europe maintains maritime transport as a geopolitical resource, we must maintain its international competitiveness and investing in the energy transition. Investing in technologies clean and clean fuels EU and national revenues ETS - he specified referring to the European Trading System emission allowances – will make the entire industrial cluster maritime more competitive".