For a single market for European maritime industries. Before the European Union develops a strategy [ANALYSIS]

By Marek Grzybowski

A few months ago, the European Commission began preparations for the development of an EU Ports Strategy and an EU Industrial Strategy for Maritime Development and invited stakeholders to participate in this process. Work is proceeding at a rapid pace. Therefore, Kerstin Jorna, Director-General of the European Commission, is sounding the alarm: “Will there be a single market for European maritime industries? It’s time for new economic measures that will allow us to face a more protectionist and hostile world,” urges Stéphane Séjourné.

CLECSONS: TOP 10 SHIPYARD ORDERBOOK 2024

This summer, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, organized several meetings under the banner of “High-Level Strategic Dialogues.” Meetings of organizations were held in Brussels, bringing together representatives of ports, the shipbuilding industry, shipping, inland navigation, and related sectors. The aim was to jointly identify priorities, opportunities, and actions that will contribute to the effective implementation of the EU Ports Strategy and Maritime Industrial Development.

Today, we know that the European shipbuilding industry is struggling to survive in the shadow of the dynamic industries of China and South Korea. Asian shipyards are not giving up, and are even taking over entire sectors of activity previously reserved for European shipyards. Shipyards from Vietnam, India, and Turkey are also actively entering the market with their potential. And they do so without any inhibitions.

Shipbuilding Production Strukture 1965-2024. Source: SEA Europe

EU Maritime Industries in the Shadow of Asia

“For decades, our industry has been struggling with unfair competition from Asia – first Japan in the 1980s, then Korea in the 1990s, and now China,” explains Christophe Tytgat, Secretary General of SEA Europe, in Euroactiv.

He laments: “As a result, we have lost many segments: large container ships, large tankers, and the like. But at the same time, we have managed to maintain what we call complex products, such as cruise ships, fishing boats, and dredgers. However, recently, Asian competitors have been entering the European market for specialized shipbuilding.”

Top 10 Maritime Countries. Source: Vessel Value, 2025

This expansion is supported by the shipbuilding and financial industries of European fleet operators, who have been ordering ships from Asian shipyards for many years. Today, leading fleets of containerships and bulk carriers, oil and gas tankers, as well as ferry, ro-ro, and universal vessels have been built in Asian docks. FSRUs and offshore installation vessels, specialized drilling vessels, and complete drilling rigs are also being built there.

European Union seaports have been outside the top 10 global container ports in the Lloyd’s List One Hundred Ports ranking for several years now. In 2024, ports on the Lloyd’s List One Hundred Ports recorded a total transshipment of 743.6 million TEU, representing an 8.1% increase compared to the previous year and a reversal of the stagnation of recent years.

“Asia maintained its dominant position, with Chinese ports alone accounting for over 40% of global container traffic,” notes Linton Nightingale, deputy editor-in-chief of “Lloyd’s List,” emphasizing: “Emerging markets such as India, Vietnam, and Turkey have benefited from the reorganization of supply chains and regional trade agreements.”

We’re still holding our own in maritime tourism. But we’re losing ground in deep-sea fishing, farmed fish production, and seafood production. Shipbuilding, science, research and development, and maritime education are all developing at a good level. But even here, there’s clear activity from Asian countries, whose investments in science, research, and development clearly dominate in many areas. Automation and robotics, as well as the use of information and satellite technologies, are already clearly visible in the products of Asian countries, Japan, China, Vietnam, India, and others.

Exclusive Economic Zones of EU Countries. Source: The European Union Maritime Policy. University of Evora, UMPP, ISBN: ISSN 2183-8992.

With a Maritime Economic Zone, Without a Strategy

It’s no wonder, then, that Kerstin Jorna, Director General of the European Commission, raised the alarm a few days ago by asking: Did you know that Europe has an exclusive economic zone four times larger than its land area, which is 25,000 km²? This is the world’s largest combined maritime area available to this economic region. EU countries have 70,000 km of coastline and 42,000 km of navigable inland waterways. The European Commission more cautiously estimates that “the 25 Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) contain 80% of the EU’s biodiversity, and the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) covers 17 million km².”

“This is a huge asset,” emphasizes Kerstin Jorna, enumerating: “Furthermore, we have strategic infrastructure in our seas: thousands of kilometers of submarine data and energy cables, providing 99% of internet traffic and delivering renewable energy from sea to land, and 36.6 GW of offshore wind farms, which supply 4% of our electricity needs.”

Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, joined the Dialogue on the EU Industrial Strategy for Maritime Development. The European Commission emphasizes that “Ports, as gateways for trade, logistics, energy, and military mobility, must be prepared to support Europe’s future economic and strategic needs.”

Therefore, the “Comprehensive EU Ports Strategy” adopted by the European Parliament will aim to support the long-term competitiveness of ports, with a particular focus on security, energy transition, and sustainable development. At the same time, the European shipbuilding, maritime, and offshore sectors are under increasing pressure from global competition and growing security threats.

Top 15 Container Ports. Source: TN Stats.

Seaports Important for the EU’s Economic Security

“Seaports can support EU countries in striving to maintain two forms of balance – openness to the world and the protection of our external borders,” says Stéphane Séjourné in an interview for Groupe d’études géopolitiques. “So what’s missing?” asks the Director-General of the European Commission, adding: “What we lack, however, is the capacity to produce enough vessels to manage and develop this resource sustainably.”

In her opinion, submarines, unmanned vessels to maintain the operation and security of energy infrastructure, specialized vessels to ensure the efficiency and repair of underwater cables are needed. Vessels for the transport of specialized, service, and assembly crews (CTV, SOV), as well as installation vessels, are essential. Kerstin Jorna believes that such vessels can “meet our ambitious goals for the development of offshore wind energy.”

Kerstin Jorna calculates: “Our nearly 1,000 ferries operating in Europe are, on average, 24 years old. Our inland waterway fleet of 15,000 vessels is, on average, 40 years old.” There’s also a fly in the ointment in intra-EU transport. Although “30% of intra-EU freight is transported by sea,” “paperwork” (framed by IT) and administrative constraints in seaports make “moving large volumes of goods by water more complicated than transporting significant volumes by road.”

As early as February 2026, we should see an EU strategy for maritime industries. Will the strategy suddenly make European industries competitive, and will fisheries, shipyards, and seaports revitalize thanks to European industries? Will seaports increase turnover and revenues thanks to the EU economy’s increasing dependence on Asian production and the supply of raw materials from outside the EU?

Will this be possible, given that “Currently, the EU lacks a uniform system that would enable precise tracking of goods entering and leaving the continent,” argues Stéphane Séjourné. Can we develop the shipbuilding industry, including specialized and high-technology vessels, when “we must remove internal barriers, striving for openness and simplification, in line with a liberal approach. However, this must be accompanied by the ‘Buy European Act,’ establishing European preferences in certain strategic markets,” states Stéphane Séjourné, a fundamental requirement.

The condition for the development of the European Union’s maritime economy is therefore “internal openness and a preference for Europe.” Séjourné argues that “This is a new economic equation that will allow us to face a more protectionist and hostile world, and preserve our jobs and economies. These are two goals we must achieve. It’s not about one or the other—it’s about both.”

The conditions outlined above for the implementation of the European Union’s maritime policy still pose a number of limitations, uncertainties, and questions. We won’t receive answers to these questions in February 2026. Will we receive a report on our weaknesses, barriers, legal loopholes, and administrative constraints? Will it be a set of real solutions, concrete actions, and financial resources for their implementation? Or a collection of wishful thinking? We’ll find out in March 2026.

We have millions of square miles, thousands of ports, thousands of cables and underwater pipelines, and the natural environment to develop, protect, and defend. Kerstin Jorna, Director General of the European Commission, warns: “Will a single market for European maritime industries be established? It’s time for new economic measures that will allow us to face a more protectionist and hostile world,” appeals Stéphane Séjourné. Let’s hope the European Commission and European governments take these appeals to heart.

Changes in transshipment and the position of container ports between 1999 and 2024 (TN Stats): https://youtu.be/BlYTBXVweI0