The European Maritime Day event is hosted annually in a European port city. The 2025 European Maritime Day took place in Cork from the 21st to the 23rd of May.
For EMD 2025 there were 1,277 participants from every corner of Ireland and Europe representing a variety of organisations within the maritime sphere. The organisations represented a broad spectrum of maritime activites.
The meticulous planning and organising of the EMD, presented by the Government of Ireland, Cork City Council and the European Commission was outstanding from start to finish in facilitating the EMD. With EMD being an open platform event, this contributed to it being the success that it was.
EMD was held at Cork City Hall and a nearby hotel was also a venue for some workshops. There was a timetable covering a range of scheduled presentations with interesting topics spurring challenging questions and quality debate.
The agenda included the official opening session with speeches from dignitries including the Taoiseach, Government Ministers, the Lord Mayor of Cork, the EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans and Members of the European Parliament which highlighted the significance of the Maritime sector locally, Europe-wide and beyond. There were a number of sessions and workshops, some of which are listed below to give an idea of what was included.
- The sessions for fisheries and ocean dialogue covered policy, sustainable blue economy and the international dimension.
- The EMD cities network emphasised the importance of maritime cities in shaping European Comission policies.
- The Blue innovation ocean energy scaleup through the European Ocean pact.
- Blue women champions, the young generation approach for resilient blue economy and 20 years of advisory councils’ stakeholder expertise for oceans pact.
- EU strenghtening cosatal resilience, Greater North Sea Basin initiative (GNSBI) engagement with other users of the North Sea.
- Navigating the future: Sustainable trade and ships, protecting subsea infrastructure.
- Launch of the report of the Valentia Island inaugural symposium on subsea cable security and resilience.
- EU Maritime Security Strategy (EUMSS), the role of european Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), and FRONTEX (European Border and Coast Guard Agency).
- Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) as a key tool for EU response to maritime security threats.
There were 76 stands on display in the city hall representing a variety of marine related companies, Govenment departments and agencies, EU maritime bodies, Training establishments and Marine Institutes to mention a few.
Capt. Crowley attending on behalf of IIMM and alongside the CESMA representative, Capt. Hubert Ardillon.
Capt. Crowley (President of IIMM), Capt. Gray (Former President of IIMM) with Capt. Ardillon of CESMA onboard ILV Granuaile
The city docks had a number of vessels alongside including from the Irish Naval Service, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) and the Irish Lights Vessel ILV Granuaile. All were open to the public and we visited onboard where we enjoyed a reunion with IIMM members.
We also met with the Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Maja Marokvčić Kostelac, and discussed the successful meeting when the Confederation of European Shipmasters’ Associations (CESMA) recently held its 30th AGA at EMSA’s headquarters in Lisbon. We discussed how continuous cooperation with recognised stakeholder engagement was acknowledged as a positive benefit.
During the EMD I crossed paths with a former shipmate, Harbour Master Deirdre Lane of the Nautical Institute, Ireland Branch. Overall, a sucessful event where there was a sense of appetite for another similar event to be hosted in the future.
Capt. Trevor Crowley, President IIMM
