Following yesterday’s discussions in the UK parliament and the mandate given to the UK Prime Minister to re‐discuss Brexit arrangements with her European colleagues, European shipowners call upon all parties to seize this opportunity to avoid a no‐deal Brexit scenario.

Without a deal the repercussions on the fluidity of trade between the EU and UK will be huge, to the detriment of shipowners, logistics partners, passengers and consumers.

“We call upon EU and UK authorities to be constructive and do their utmost to ensure the Withdrawal Agreement can be agreed to by all sides. If not, there will only be losers at all sides”, comments Martin Dorsman, Secretary‐General of ECSA.

If the Withdrawal Agreement is voted through, the implementation period will give the UK and EU time to prepare and there will finally be the needed certainty for shipping operators to prepare so that frictionless trade will remain the case.