D. whereas 90 % of the EU’s external trade and 40 % of its internal trade is transported by sea; whereas the EU is the world’s leading maritime shipping actor, with European ship owners managing 30 % of the vessels and 35 % of world shipping tonnage - inter alia 55 % of container vessels and 35 % of tankers, representing 42 % of the value of global seaborne trade; whereas taken together the EU Member States constitute the world’s biggest EEZ (of around 25 million square metres);

Ships carry 75 % of the European Union’s (EU’s) external trade and 37 % of its internal trade.

38. Pays tribute to the vital contribution made by the EUNAVFOR Atalanta operation in combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean and its humanitarian contribution to ensuring maritime safety by protecting World Food Programme ships and other vulnerable vessels, and approves the extension of its mandate until December 2014; approves also the extension of the scope of this mission to include Somalia’s coastal zone and territorial and inland waters; calls on the Member States to provide adequate air and sea resources for this operation and encourages commercial vessels to continue to apply best navigational practice ...[+++]s so as to reduce the risk of attack; welcomes the contribution by the Netherlands to Operation Atalanta in the form of an on-board protection team intended to ensure the safety of humanitarian convoys and encourages other Member States to make this type of contribution;

Considering the large number of collisions involving fishing vessels that have clearly not been seen by merchant ships or which have not seen the merchant ships around them, extension of that measure to include fishing vessels with a length of more than 15 metres is very much to be desired.

Considering the large number of collisions involving fishing vessels that have clearly not been seen by merchant ships or which have not seen the merchant ships around them, extension of this measure to include fishing vessels with a length of more than 15 metres is very much to be desired.

In comparison with domestic trade in, and competition between, products incorporating a design, trade and competition within the Community are prevented and distorted by the large number of applications, offices, procedures, laws, nationally circumscribed exclusive rights and the combined administrative expense with correspondingly high costs and fees for the applicant.