The Daily View: Europe’s call to arms

THE stark warning from European governments that all ships are at risk from the substandard, spoofing shenanigans of shadow fleet ships will not be news to Lloyd’s List readers.

The growing complexity of deceptive shipping practices being deployed by those circumventing sanctions has been evident for some time.

We have moved from old ships obviously going dark in the most rudimentary fashion, to a digital identity theft so sophisticated that ships still under construction are now being used to mask trades.

The open letter from 14 European coastal states today has effectively just confirmed what we knew was coming — namely that stateless vessels are now a target for boarding by European navies.

But in addressing their concerns to the wider maritime sector, Europe is also rightly reminding everyone that the obvious safety concerns are a problem for everyone to resolve.

That is easier said than done.

Europe has focused on the spoofing problem where the existing requirements for Global Navigation Satellite Systems are no longer fit for purpose. The Baltic governments are correct in stating that they urgently need to be updated with much stricter regulations around the resilience to GNSS interference and the behaviours under intentional spoofing attacks. But this is a much wider problem than just a technical review of spoofing.

The whole international system of oversight for shipping has essentially been predicated on the notion that operators will be acting in good faith. That includes the shipowners and operators and flag registers overseeing them, but it also includes the wider nexus of service providers that oil the wheels of global maritime trade.

The problem is that there is a lot of bad faith that has entered the space, and there isn’t enough of a system of either oversight or enforcement to challenge those who are acting outside the law, regulations and the norms.

Sanctions created the market for the shadow fleet to flourish, but the wider system has been exposed as being unfit for purpose. Until we address the issue of bad actors being able to operate with impunity, we will continue to see more and more innovative schemes that take advantage of things such as IMO numbers, flag registries, and the many gaping holes in the current system that allows substandard shipping to not just exist, but thrive.

Multilateralism may not be what it once was, but Europe’s call to arms over maritime safety requires a global review, not a regional series of seizures.

Richard Meade
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List

Click here to view the latest Lloyd’s List Daily Briefing