Immediate overcoming of the distortion whereby Italy financially supports non-EU seafarers employed in international and cruise services and not Italian seafarers on board ships operating short-haul connections. And definition of a targeted intervention by the State to favor the renewal and rejuvenation of ferry fleets in a market that cannot be financially supported by private financing alone; therefore, a new regime of public aid to European shipyards to concretely relaunch continental shipbuilding without resorting to senseless protectionist measures.

With detailed criticisms of the maritime, industrial and environmental policies pursued in recent years by the European Union, Stefano Messina, President of Assarmatori (the Association adhering to Conftrasporto-Confcommercio that brings together Italian, European and third-country shipowners who regularly operate in Italy), has addressed to the Government and Parliament a real cahier de doleance that hinges on these requests. And he did so by opening the 2025 Annual Meeting, held in Rome in the presence, among others, of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, the Minister of Civil Protection and Maritime Policies, Nello Musumeci, the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci and the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Edoardo Rixi. The Assembly also received video messages from the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Raffaele Fitto.

“The largest ferry fleet in the world, the Italian one, cannot be renewed exclusively with the resources of the shipowners”, Messina explicitly declared, “and it is time to tell the truth about the fairy tale of the ETS, the “ecological” tax on goods and passengers that was supposed to generate revenue for the maritime sector to finance innovation, fleet renewal, safety”. “This is not the case”, Messina revealed, specifying that 50% of these funds “are now earmarked for the repayment of public debt. A method that must be changed, diverting those resources towards the sector that generated them and thus concretely addressing the issue of the renewal of the ferry fleet; renewal for which a concrete intervention by the State that supports the initiatives of the shipowners is essential”. Stefano Messina also highlighted the issue of the relaunch of European shipbuilding, which has returned to the forefront in light of the ongoing trade wars and the crusade launched by the American administration for the creation not only of an American shipbuilding industry, but also of an alternative shipbuilding offer to the Asian monopolist: “In Europe – he stated – there are those who would like to support a protectionist approach that, rather than actively promoting the competitiveness of European shipyards, could open the way to protectionist measures for those who do not choose Made in Europe. As in the case of the ETS, community policies generate strong contradictions between method and objectives to be achieved. We are in favor and absolutely convinced, and in this the shipowners are ready to do their part, of the need to relaunch European shipbuilding in segments in which it has lost leadership and skills. However, this objective cannot be pursued through mere protectionist policies. It is necessary to redesign, in line with the market, a state aid regime in favor of European shipyards”. Messina then focused on the urgency of a massive effort to streamline the bureaucracy of the navigation system and digitalization, factors that would relaunch the competitiveness of an Italian flag that instead continues to lose tonnage due to the change of flag towards flags of other States, including EU, which offer reduced times and simplified procedures.

The President of the shipowners’ association then focused on the topic of maritime work. “Is it possible – Messina’s provocation – that our country financially supports non-EU seafarers in international and cruise services and not the seafarers, almost all if not all Italian, who work on ships employed in short-range services and in particular in connections with the islands that guarantee territorial continuity? Is this perhaps why we have given up measuring the phenomenon of non-EU seafarers by not equipping ourselves with a digital registry of seafarers? This is certainly an unacceptable distortion, on which the European Commission has spoken out by inviting Italy to respect European rules. We will fight”.