HANSA 05-2017

5 Fragen an …
Schifffahrt | Shipping
ble from a EU perspective and that there
are no explicit periods of applicability. For
long-term business decisions these factors
give rise to uncertainty due to a perceived
risk of interpretative policy change.
In some of the centres (Hong Kong and
Vancouver), rules governing fiscal treatment
are written in primary legislation,
and perceived policy risks are marginal.
Monitor Deloitte sees a need for a
comprehensive policy for shipping with
a focus on supporting the global competiveness
of the sector. While emphasising
the inherent global nature of shipping,
the current maritime transport
strategy focuses on waterborne transport
internal to the EU. The global challenge
to EU shipping requires a more
globally oriented policy that should cut
across policy fields like transport, taxation,
environment, etc. and thereby cover
the key competitiveness factors.
Professional services and skills
There is a marked difference between the
EU and the five benchmarked centres, except
Shanghai, at a more fundamental level
in the way that professional services are actively
included in policies. In four centres,
the core ambition is to support the development
of high value-added professional
service jobs around the core shipping operations
in order to develop the maritime
cluster and its competitiveness. The EU
does not have a similar policy in place.
There is no significant financial gap in
the EU regulatory framework for subsidies
to training or to the labour-related costs
such as provisions on exemption of seafarers’
income tax and exemption of social
contribution payments. However, there is
a gap regarding the scope of the training.
Within the EU, this is solely focused on EU
seafarers, whereas the scope in other centres
is wider and also includes upskilling
in the maritime professional services sector
and other onshore-based jobs.
Flag attractiveness
There are possible important policy gaps
that may affect competitiveness negatively
and possibly lead to relocation of
activities and de-flagging to outside the
EU. These are, among others, caused by
a problematic introduction of EU legislation
for international shipping and thereby
introduction of different standards for
EU flags and shipowners, causing additional
administrative and technical requirements.
Furthermore, some EU registers
still stipulate specific nationality
requirements and crewing restrictions
that also lead to increased economic and
administrative burdens. Lastly, there is a
lack of cross-member state digital solutions
that would allow EU shipping companies
to benefit specifically from being
registered under an EU flag.
Deloitte warns about the implementation
of regulations outside IMO/ILO as they increase
the operating costs relative to flag
states, such as Singapore. The city state has
strategies to ensure that the regulation does
not go beyond the international standards
or further restrict operations through additional
national requirements. This leads
to lower operational costs and higher flag
attractiveness.
Ease of doing business
Monitor Deloitte identified policy gaps
that relate to the lack of focus on ease
of doing business for shipping companies
involved in global activities. The
international centres provide examples
of an approach where the perspective is
global and as much on facilitating activities
from abroad as on facilitating only
internal activities. It also seems that a
customer-related approach such as a
one-stop shop, etc, is still missing rather
often within the EU and its member
states and the administrations involved.
Availability of finance
There is a number of policy gaps relating
to the focus on mainly intra-EU
investment support, the lack of transparency
surrounding EU financial offerings,
high administrative complexity
and the uncertainties surrounding the
new Basel regulations and their implications
on ship financing through EUbased
banks.
It is stressed that approximately 70% of
the EU fleet are private enterprises that
rely primarily on commercial bank financing.
The current regulatory framework
for bank financing is already restrictive,
and the Basel IV proposals will make
ship financing from banks even more
scarce. With regard to the proposed Basel
IV regulations, Monitor Deloitte sees
a need to include the consideration of the
repercussions in the EU, especially on
SME shipowners and operators who traditionally
rely heavily on bank loans. This
is in contrast to non-EU shipping companies
that have more options for financing
besides the traditional bank loans. ED
Carsten Gierga
Geschäftsführer
EuroFlag Services –
Agent für das Register Luxemburgs
»Wir brauchen ein level playing field«
Was sollte sich in der EU-Flaggenpolitik
ändern?
Carsten Gierga: Wir würden uns ein »level
playing field«, also einheitliche Standards
bei den Grundsatzfragen und deren einheitliche
Einhaltung wünschen. So gibt es beispielsweise
eine erhebliche Diskrepanz bei
der Verpflichtung zur Sozialversicherung.
Eine aktuelle Deloitte-Studie bemängelt
fehlende digitale Lösungen von EU-Flaggen.
Was ist Luxemburgs Antwort darauf?
Gierga: Über die Auswertung digitaler Positionsdaten
stellt Luxemburg unter anderem
ein spezifisches Vorbereitungsprogramm
für Hafenstaatskontrollen bereit.
Darüber hinaus können Zertifikate für Seeleute
komplett digital beantragt werden.
Länder wie Singapur achten darauf, dass
ihre Flaggen-Anforderungen nicht über
internationale Standards hinausgehen.
Wie ist es im Register Luxemburgs?
Gierga: Luxemburg begleitet den technischen
Zustand der Schiffe und die Einhaltung internationaler
Standards aktiv. Im Bereich der
Arbeitsbedingungen der Seeleute hat Luxemburg
MLC frühzeitig ratifiziert und wendet
europäisches Recht für die EU-Seeleute an.
Wie wichtig ist den Reedern das Argument
»Kosten« im Vergleich zum Service?
Gierga: Das Kostenargument wiegt aktuell
sehr schwer, aber auch hier ist Luxemburg
im EU-Vergleich durchaus konkurrenzfähig
und bietet weitreichenden Service.
Welche Entwicklung erwarten Sie?
Gierga: In den letzten lief es positiv, neue
Schiffe kamen zur Flotte hinzu, auch europäische.
Der Beginn des Jahres 2017 verlief
recht erfreulich, und gerade jüngst haben
einige Schiffe europäischer Eigner zur Flagge
Luxemburgs gewechselt, unter der aktuell
222 Schiffe fahren. Das Register wird
wohl keines der weltweit größten werden,
wer aber unter einer EU-Flagge fahren will
und Wert auf Service legt, findet in Luxemburg
ein konkurrenzfähiges Register mit
einem weltweiten Service-Netzwerk vor.
HANSA International Maritime Journal – 154. Jahrgang – 2017 – Nr. 5 31