Seafarers at the helm: European Shipping Summit hears unions' concerns on sustainable careers

Nautilus assistant general secretary Sascha Meijer and head of international relations Danny McGowan attended the European Shipping Summit in March 2025, where they shared the concerns of members with key figures in politics and the global shipping industry. Rob Coston reports

From March 19-20 2025, Nautilus officials took part in the European Shipping Summit at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

The two-day event represented a chance for the Union to act as a voice for seafarers by meeting with European and international policymakers, regulators and industry stakeholders during a range of panel events and networking sessions.

Among attendees at the event were the European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas; and the directors of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) Fotini Ioannidou and Magda Kopczynska; as well as transport ministers and deputy ministers from across Europe; and the CEOs of several European shipowners’ associations.

Also in attendance were trade union partners from the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF).

Key takeaways

Several important themes emerged during the course of the event, as articulated by representatives of governments, the European Commission and shipowners. These included:

• the need for the European shipping industry to be competitive on the global stage
• the need to ensure a resilient supply chain for Europe in the face of global instability
• the need to create a level playing field
• the need for reskilling/upskilling due to the advent of new technologies
• a desire among shipowners to claw back money from the EU Emissions Trading System to invest in new ships and training – with workers' representatives keen to ensure resources reinvested in the industry are used to ensure a Just Transition

Navigating the future

Nautilus head of international relations Danny McGowan was able to articulate some of the Union's own positions during a panel entitled People at the helm: navigating the future of shipping.

Mr McGowan shared some of the finding of Nautilus's Mapping our Maritime Future report.

He explained the need for a real level playing field in the European maritime space, with social sustainability and without social dumping.

He also called on the industry to address the recruitment and retention crisis and offer a Just Transition, and to put seafarers at the heart of green and digital developments.

 

Taking on the challenge

Speaking on a panel entitled Building Industrial Capacity – the skills challenge, ETF secretary general Livia Spera addressed the 'elephant in the room' during the Summit. While many attendees had talked about the need to ensure a resilient supply chain for Europe during geopolitical instability, they had failed to deal with the contradictions of trying to ensure this without truly addressing labour conditions for European seafarers.

Ms Spera said that it is a fact that the European maritime workforce is not competitive on the global level, as their counterparts can be paid much lower wages while working in European waters.

A large part of the EU fleet is registered under flags of convenience and crewed with third country nationals, meaning that the only thing left in Europe is the beneficial ownership. That is not a secure supply chain, Ms Spera said.

She pointed out that the industry will not be able to recruit European maritime professionals who can help to build a more secure supply chain if it expects them to work under the International Labour Organization’s minimum standards. Better conditions will be essential.

Our concerns heard

However, there were positive indications at the Summit too, which Nautilus and its Union partners are attempting to build upon.

Speeches at the Summit, which laid out the key themes listed above, also demonstrated that the concerns of our members are being echoed by policymakers at the EU level – and that industry must now respond.

During his keynote speech, Mr Tzitzikostas said the European Commission will launch a European Maritime Transport Strategy aimed at stimulating investment, support shipbuilders, ensuring ensure a global level playing field and ensuring access to skilled workers.

This last strand will require an increased emphasis on training and career development, while also making the industry more attractive with sustainable working and living conditions, added Mr Tzitzikostas. He expressed his gratitude to seafarers for their resilience so far, and for keeping the industry running.

Also of particular interest during the Summit was the speech given by Ms Kopczynska. As one of the directors of DG MOVE, she plays a key role in developing and implementing European policies in the transport field.

During her speech, Ms Kopcynska said that people and skills are essential to achieving the key goals for the transport sector of security, competitiveness and resilience – which means ensuring working and living conditions must be properly taken care of – and highlighted the recruitment and retention crisis that Nautilus has been warning about.

To solve this, she said that attracting people would require both management of skills and a positive perception of the industry as a place to build an attractive, lifelong career. She underlined that pushing to improve the Maritime Labour Convention would form an important part of achieving this, as the current international minimum standards are not attractive enough.