Category: Security policy

Something is happening...

Posted by | 23 Nov 2012 | , , | 1

Something is slowly happening in the maritime sector! On 9 November, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) announced that the Bundestag had decided "...to increase the funds for promoting innovation in German shipbuilding by one million euros. This means that the federal government will provide a total of 13 million euros in 2013 as part of the 'Innovative shipbuilding secures competitive jobs' funding programme...". One million euros is not a lot with a federal budget of 312.7 billion euros, but we are not complaining. But there is more - we stumble across the "Maritime Industry Focus" on the BMWi homepage, which surprises us with the following excerpt: "A strong, competitive maritime industry is of great overall economic importance for a foreign trade-orientated country like Germany. Maintaining and strengthening Germany as a maritime location is therefore one of the most important goals and fields of action of the German government's maritime policy." Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology: Sector Focus Maritime Economy Even if we are not (yet) convinced that the topic is as important to the Federal Government as it is presented here, it is worth reading the BMWi's brief profile of the maritime economy. There you will also find a reference to the National Masterplan for Maritime Technologies, the aim of which is "...to increase the presence, perception and competitiveness of German maritime technology on national and international markets." The Masterplan goes back to the decisions of the German Bundestag in March 2007 and March 2009;...

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Maritime safety key topic at the 25th SMM in Hamburg

Posted by | 7 Sep 2012 | , , | 2

MS&D 2012 - international conference on maritime security and defence - took place in Hamburg on 4 and 5 September as part of the 25th SMM, shipbuilding, machinery & marine technology, international trade fair. Here is the final report on MS&D 2012 from the perspective of Messe Hamburg and DMI: "The integration of MS&D as a maritime security and defence conference into SMM as the world's leading trade fair for the maritime industry was the right step at the right time," said Bernd Aufderheide, CEO of Hamburg Messe und Congress GmbH, drawing a positive conclusion. Even in the run-up to the conference there had been a great deal of interest from industry and international military delegations. The very well-structured range of topics, which covered technical as well as strategic, economic and political aspects, was a success factor for the tight, one-and-a-half-day conference, he said, adding that another important argument for organising MS&D together with SMM was the expansion of the nomenclature for the world's leading maritime trade fair. "By integrating MS&D, SMM has gained a new, attractive and promising area. This has already proved its worth this first time round," said Aufderheide. Heinz Schulte, Editor-in-Chief at DVV Media / Griephan, event partner together with the German Maritime Institute (DMI), agreed: "It was a great opportunity for us to go alongside the MS&D at the SMM. We should stick to this basic concept of organising the MS&D as part of the SMM. "The approximately 250...

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Under the German flag...?

Under the German flag...?

Posted by | 3 Aug 2012 | , | 9

Actually, you have to be grateful for this farce: The dispute over the planned reflagging of the cruise ship "Deutschland", which became known as the "Traumschiff", is escalating. [...] The captain and large parts of the crew are against the fact that the Malta flag is soon to fly on the last cruise ship to fly the German flag, according to Bild. The shipping company, which has belonged to financial investor Aurelius since its insolvency, wants to save costs. [...] However, the ship will still fly the German flag at least during the Olympic Games in London. "It would have been embarrassing if Federal President Joachim Gauck had officially welcomed German guests on the MS Deutschland under the Maltese flag.

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The Belgian-Dutch naval co-operation - Commentary

The Belgian-Dutch naval co-operation - Commentary

Posted by | 29 Jun 2012 | , | 3

Pooling and sharing is the new buzzword when talking about Europe, security and the budget. It should be clear to everyone involved that there will be no more "business as usual" in the sense of sole national provision in the future. It is worth looking at the bigger picture, as there is already some interesting military and security-related cooperation in Europe. Limited budgets and common interests unleash creativity and create new structures in Europe. Could the big players learn from the small ones? Kai Schönfeld is an active naval officer and operator of the blog Sicherheit vernetzt. On Meer Verstehen, Schönfeld writes exclusively about the...

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