On behalf of the 18 ENMC national maritime clusters, he expressed their satisfaction with the willingness of European institutions to work closely with the ENMC in future. He also stressed once more the huge potential of the maritime business to ensure a strong and sustainable European economic growth per se.
Confirmation of the long-awaited ENMC initiated study (re European maritime economy)
After the ceremony, ENMC Presidium had an informal meeting with representatives of the European Commission to discuss the next steps with regards to the study /database identifying the real economic weight of the European maritime sector. The decision (and budget!) has been made by the Commission to launch a pre-study focusing on the elaboration of an optimal methodology to collect data and define the (wide) scope of the future survey. The ENMC expressed its satisfaction of this successful outcome of a three-year discussion, rewarding its efforts and recommendations for the methods and the terms of reference of the study.
Overwhelming support to the ENMC initiatives at the European Maritime Day in Piraeus – 28th and 20th May
More than 1500 stakeholders, among others representatives of the Dutch Maritime Network, the Polish Maritime Cluster and Marine South East (British Cluster), converged on Athens to celebrate the eighth European Maritime Day. ENMC Chairman Vallat and Secretary General Marceul were both asked to speak. During the discussions with the audience, the ENMC was happy to get a strong back-up for its two main fights: the necessity of a maritime economic database on the one hand, and the emergence of a strong and fully integrated European Maritime Cluster (out of the ENMC) on the other hand, both requiring some financial commitment from the European Commission. In that spirit ENMC is looking forward to the high-level discussions to take place at the next meeting in July between the Chairmen of the 18 national clusters, the European Commission and the European Parliament.
