The European Union external competencies and maritime industry

• Author: Hamed Alavi
• Position: Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain; University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, Iraq, hamedalavi2000@gmail.com.
• Pages: 128-138

The European Union external competencies

and maritime industry

PhD. Hamed ALAVI1

Abstract

Maritime industry ha s deep roots in Europe. Intern ational ports and Inland water

ways ar e in use by Eu ropean mercha nts in the course of their trade all a long the history.

Formation of the European Union and Single Europea n Market has incr eased the

importance of maritime tra nsport even more tha n before. Curr ently, industry is regula ted at

the Union level with body of law which intends to crea te a safe and predictable business

environment for Europea n and foreign enter prises. However, shared nature of the EU with

her Member States in regula ting Maritime Tra nsport has created a big question mark for

many external par ties as well as European sta ck holders of Maritime industr y. The question

is who can represent EU mar itime industry externally and where to dr aw the limits of Union

and Member States Competencies in this industry? At the midst of the second decade of 21th

Century, still many inter national businesses and even foreign governments wonder about

limits o f external competencies of the EU in maritime industry. Such confusion crea tes

trouble for foreigners and even Eur opeans in determining where should they referee their

matters to the Commission and where shou ld they a pproach Member States? In this paper,

author tr ies to a nswer above mentioned question by scr utinizing external and inter nal

challenges facing the EU about its competencies to represent maritime industries outside of

her boundar ies. P aper is divided into five main sections. After introductor y comments,

second part will discuss maritime policy a nd its regulation in the EU. In third part with

particula r focus on the EU-IMO relations, paper will ana lyse external challenges facing the

Union in r epresenting her mar itime industry in international or ganizations. For th part will

take a loo k a t interna l challenges and regula tory limits which affect the extremal

representa tion of maritime industry by the Union. Fina l part is dedica ted to concluding

remarks.

Keywords: the European Union law, maritime industry, external competencies, the European

Union.

JEL Classification: K23, K33

1. Introduction

The global trade is a dynamic area with an ever changing nature.

Introduction of new technologies, political and economic developments, formation

of economic unions, conclusion of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements at

regional or cross continental level, among others, are factors which change global

1 Hamed Alavi - Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain; University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, Iraq,

hamedalavi2000@gmail.com.