Maritime Safety

My name is David Livingstone and I am Managing Director of Clyde Marine in Glasgow,the largest ship manning agency in the UK.<P>Over the last 5/6 years the employment prospects for European seafarers has diminished due mainly to the low charter rates. Most shipowners are facing nil returns on their investments and survival is the name of the game.<BR>As crewing accounts for 60% of the daily running costs this is the first area that is attacked in an effort to reduce running costs. This has resulted in the replacement of European Officers and Ratings by ones from the far east,Indian sub continent and the old eastern block countries.<P>This trend will continue and in 5/10 years all northern European expertise in the Maritime Industry will have disappeared.<P>Is this an acceptable scenario for Europe and if not what does the European Commission intend doing about it.<P>Here in the UK the introduction of Tonnage Tax has greatly increased the numbers of Cadets coming into the Industry however when they complete their Cadetships no jobs will be available and they will have wasted 3.5 years training for nothing.<P>I would implore the Transport Commissioner to look urgently at this problem and to offer some form of subsidy to shipowners which will offset the price differential between Europeans and other seafarers.<P>Without this we will have to rely on Russians,Indians and Filipinos to run all out Maritime Industries within a decade.<P><BR>yours faithfully<BR>David Livingstone