The European Commission (EC) and the member states have agreed on the establishment of a “Partnership Zero Emission Waterborne Transport”. This was revealed by SEA Europe yesterday (29 October), which claims to get this intel from a reliable source.
According to the Shipyards’ and Maritime Equipment Association (SEA Europe) the EC agreed on the partnership on Thursday 24 October. The project is part of Horizon Europe, a research and innovation programme of the EC with a 100-billion-euro budget.
Partnerships
Within the Horizon Europe programme, the EC is looking for so-called “partnerships” to allow for targeted research needed for important societal challenges. In the “Partnership Zero Emission Waterborne Transport”, the EC seeks cooperation from the European maritime sector. A fixed budget has been made available for the co-financing of research, development and innovations that are necessary to achieve emission reduction objectives.
Leading in Clean Tech
According to Sea Europe, the approval of the Partnership shows that the European Union is convinced that the maritime sector is of great strategic importance for Europe. They see the Partnership as a means to maintain a leading position in the field of clean technology. Trade organisation Netherlands Maritime Technology (NMT) and maritime companies and knowledge institutes Marin and TNO, united in Nederland Maritiem Land (NML) were involved in the establishment of the Partnership.
‘The only way to accelerate the European maritime sector in its ambition to achieve emission-free transport is a coordinated action,’ says Henk Prins, R&D manager at Marin and chairman of the European R&D umbrella organisation Waterborne Technology Platform. ‘The Partnership is an essential tool to take the next steps towards waterborne transport without the use of fossil fuels. I call on the Dutch maritime sector to cooperate with its European colleagues in the partnership. And thus make an important contribution to the greening of our sector.’
Picture by Roberto Venturini.
