“No more attacks on shipping companies”

Rome - Confitarma maintains that “in recent weeks, the instrumental diffusion of news on the subject of E.U. and non-E.U. seafarers aboard Italian-flagged vessels has been given ample space in the national media, giving rise to biased and incorrect information, which, misrepresenting the real situation, seriously denigrates and offends the entire category of Italian shipping companies. Since 1998, with the establishment of the International Register, the Italian merchant fleet has more than doubled, and with it the number of sailors on board have doubled, which is now more than 60,000, mostly Italian/E.C. sailors. The Italian International Register is a success of Italy’s maritime policy, which creates employment through flexibility. Moreover, as regards non-E.U. sailors employed on Italian vessels, the employment contracts that are applied are regulated at the international level and recognised by Italian law. Therefore, Confitarma will respond to defamatory attacks in the appropriate forums, and reserves the right, in case such offensive actions are repeated, to resort to using the most suitable instruments for the protection of the image of the sector it represents. To avoid further exploitation, Confitarma will ask all political forces and national media for a direct comparison in order to deepen the role and value of the maritime sector in Italy and use data to illustrate the results obtained in the last twenty years thanks to Law no. 30 of 1998.”