SEA Europe discuss reorganisation

36 European shipyard and maritime equipment industry representatives met at SEA Europe’s 2017 General Assembly to discuss its reorganisation and upcoming challenges.

The assembly, which took place at Vigo Port Authority’s facilities in Spain, focussed on H1 2016-2017’s internal reorganisation of Sea Europe, which established a new role for the secretariat, prompted a revision of the association’s priorities and created an enhanced organisation structure.

The reorganisation took place to improve the association’s efficiency, professionalism and visibility towards international, European and national policy-makers, as well as towards member-associations and their member-companies.

During the assembly, the board reflected on the upcoming challenges, which comprise, inter alia, unfair or aggressive competition from third countries, enhanced trade protectionism, decarbonisation, digitalisation, connected shipping, disruptive technologies, or the need for appropriate skills.

The board welcomed the fact that SEA Europe had been reconfirmed as the secretariat of the reorganised Waterborne Technology Platform and invited SEA Europe members to start preparing the forthcoming EU R&D Framework Programme. The board also mandated the SEA Naval Group to continue its activities on defence-related RDI.

It endorsed a proposal from the secretariat to launch an internal reflection exercise aimed at identifying the industry’s needs in the light of upcoming challenges.

The assembly appointed Kjersti Kleven, co-owner and chair of the board for Norwegian Kleven Maritime AS, as new chair for the next two years, substituting Kjeld Dittmann.

The General Assembly was organised by the Galician Naval Cluster, ACLUNAGA, directed by Marcos Freire, in cooperation with NAVANTIA.