A manifesto for European yachting in the 2024 elections
Between June 6 and 9, 2024, the citizens of the countries of the European Union will vote to renew their members of the European Parliament. European Boating Industry - EBI, the association representing national boating industry federations, has published a manifesto to highlight the importance of the sector and its key issues for the 5 years of their mandate, between 2024 and 2029. EBI highlights the 280,000 direct jobs in the EU nautical sector, within 32,000 companies, 97% of which are SMEs. It estimates the number of boaters and regular water sports enthusiasts at 48 million in Europe.
5 objectives are highlighted: making progress on sustainability and the circular economy, renewing European industrial competitiveness, facilitating European tourism across borders, renewing Europe's coastal and inland infrastructures, and reducing the administrative burden.
5 proposals for 2024-2029
To achieve these objectives, EBI's manifesto sets out 5 more or less concrete proposals:
- EBI advocates a global approach to environmental impact, relying on a revision of the European directive on pleasure craft, taking into account the entire life cycle, and facilitating innovation in legislation, citing materials in particular.
- A call has been made to open up Europe's internal borders for yachtsmen and professional skippers, with greater mutual recognition of boating licenses and professional skipper titles.
- To enable circular boating, EBI is calling on elected representatives to use the Roadmap it has devised with the Commission and the States on end-of-life boats to make the necessary changes to waste legislation, design requirements and facilitate project financing.
- Faced with the challenges of climate change and transition, such as fuel switching, EBI is calling for massive financial support for marinas and marinas to carry out the necessary infrastructure work.
- To avoid distortion of competition with the rest of the tourist industry, the association is calling for nautical tourism to have access to the same reduced VAT rates as sectors such as hotels and caravans.
Finally, to facilitate harmonization of legislation and data sharing, EBI would like to see the European Union collect key data on yacht registrations in its member countries, in a uniform manner.
