Maritime Cyprus 2011 Conference kicks off in Limassol

Minister of Foreign Affairs Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis in her speech at the Conference said that “the International Maritime Organization has been ringing, very loudly, alarm bells since November 2005, in relation to the situation off the coast of Somalia”.
Unfortunately, she added, “we are now confronted with a situation which could have been much different if serious actions were taken when the activities of the pirates started emerging and were at their infancy”.

“As time passes and with the financial capabilities, expertise and experience of the perpetrators expanding, it is becoming increasingly difficult to contain the situation”, she said, expressing the hope that the developments thus far would become a lesson for all.

She expressed the fear that the developments “are signaling to the organized criminals a serious weakening of the willingness of the international community and especially of Governments to step up their actions for the protection of ships”.

“We trust that the coastal States in other regions affected by piracy will start taking more assertive actions”.

Cyprus Minister said that “a number of ships flying the Cyprus flag transit through the region every day and my Government is seriously concerned about the additional perils which confront the seafarers who work on them”.

For Cyprus, she added, “ the much talked possible re-routing of the ships, which are transiting the Gulf of Aden on the Europe-Asia-Europe trade, via the southern tip of Africa will have devastating economic consequences and we believe the Mediterranean and Black Sea States are in a similar position”.

“We are seriously concerned about the inhuman conditions the hostages face in captivity. We are alarmed by recent developments of subjecting seafarers to psychological torture and their use as a means for extortion. With the looming shortages in skilled and well trained seafarers, the actions of the persons behind such despicable acts are a grave threat to the shipping industry, there are unprecedented and, ay the worst time, disincentives for the youth to join the seafarer profession and are bound to have long-term consequences for the world trade”, she added.
Cyprus, she noted, “ condemns, in the strongest possible words, the taking of hostages; recognize the adverse impact on their families, and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

She also said that the Cyprus Government will continue to monitor the developments and adjust accordingly its policies and laws.
International Maritime Organization (IMF) Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulos in his opening remarks said that “in defiance of the many negative trends in the world economy we observe almost daily, the shipping industry recently hit the record numbers of 85,000 ships, totalling one billion gross tons, worth almost 1 trillion US dollars”.

He expressed the need for international shipping to be regulated, in all technical aspects, by the same global standards. “Unilateral or regional standards would hinder the industry’s operations and development, and may impact on the effectiveness of any measures adopted to improve safety and protect the environment”.
“The escalation of piracy in recent years has been a matter of great concern to the maritime community prompting IMO to make combating it a central theme of our work this year”, he added.

He went on to say that the reality is that piracy – which a Chatham House report has found to cost the world economy between 7 and 12 billion US dollars annually – is too complex and has become too entrenched for any one entity to deal with it effectively.
“The United Nations, Governments acting collectively or individually, political and defence alliances, shipping companies, ship operators, ships’ crews, among others, all have a crucial part to play if shipping is to be rid of this scourge and the integrity of strategically important shipping lanes maintained”, he added.

Despite the number of pirate attacks continuing to cause concern, as he said “ there is however, some cause for optimism. The percentage of successful attacks has dropped, from more than 40% in recent years to less than 20% this year, testimony, no doubt, to the effectiveness both the naval presence in the region and of the successful implementation by ships of the industry-devised best management practices”.
“The numbers speak for themselves : from 31 ships with a total of 714 seafarers in the hands of pirates in February of this year(when they peaked), the number of those held hostage at present has almost halved to 399 seafarers on 16 ships – although even one seafarer in captivity is one too many”, he moreover noted.

International Chamber of Shipping Chairman (ICS) Chairman Spyros Polemis said that “since 2008, over 3,000 seafarers have been taken hostage, often after being held in the most terrible conditions, with as many as 60 so far losing their lives”.
“The situation is so bad that the industry, as represented by bodies such as ICS, has had to revise completely its position with respect to the use of armed guards. While military guards remain preferable, many companies have concluded that private armed guards are necessary if they are to persuade their crews to continue to sail through this area”, he said.
Without a doubt, he added, “important work needs to be done, at IMO and elsewhere, to ensure that the use of armed guards is approved by flag states within a proper framework and that we can overcome those problems that many companies are experiencing with respect to their embarkation”.
He stressed that despite acknowledging their use, private armed guards do not represent a long term solution.

“Sadly one can only conclude from the current response of many governments that those thousands of seafarers that have so far been captured have simply had the wrong nationality. If they were all Americans or Europeans, the governments’ attitude might have been somewhat different”, he saif.

We appreciate, he concluded, “that governments have many competing priorities, but I am afraid that they still seem to be lacking a coherent strategy and the political will to tackle the pirates head on”.

EU transport Commissioner Siim Kallas in his televised message dyring the conference said that “European ship-owners and ship managers play an important role for European and global trade. They are also at the forefront of quality shipping efforts”.
“Quality, competiveness and sustainability of maritime transport are a general concern forthe European Commission. The EU is a key player in developing and upholding high standards not only in Europe, but on a global level together with our international partners”.

He said that “People working in the sector are at the core of any initiative aimed at ensuring safety, security and the protection of the marine environment”, adding that “ in Europe we are facing a particular threat to the maritime cluster as European officers are an ageing workforce”.

We need to attract more young qualified people to work in the sector by offering them an interesting career perspective, he added.
He went on to say that piracy is the greatest threat a seafarer or passenger can face. “ Piracy and acts of armed robbery against ships put the safety and security of navigation at risk and endanger the sustainability of maritime transport and global trade”.

The EU maritime transport policy covers maritime security and the fight against piracy, he said concluding by saying that “he European Commission works hard to support actions at the international levels”.

Every two years the Ministry of Communications and Works and its Department of Merchant Shipping in cooperation with the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, organise the Maritime Cyprus Conference, which has grown into one of the world’s most significant and most attended shipping conferences.