We spoke in April with the Director General of Aviation and Maritime Affairs at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W). We discussed in detail how we can best represent the interests of recreational boating and together we considered whether we were actually sitting in the appropriate forums. The latter turns out to be largely the case and is determined and supplemented by the Ministry. In light of current events, the topics that we specifically asked for attention are: passing through wind farms, logging boats and aquatic plants. We were also able to discuss the navigability of wind farms with the Secretary of I&W (Harbers ed.).
At the end of June we sat at the table with the Chairman of the Parliament’s Permanent Committee on Infrastructure and Water Management, Gerd de Groot. There, too, we made clear our interests in free passage through wind farms. In addition, we have offered to provide the House Committee with information on important files such as registration, discharges, and aquatic plants.
Mr De Groot raised the points about navigability during a parliamentary debate on maritime affairs and advocated traffic safety and stressed the importance of discussing this in an appropriate manner with Watersportverbond and Belangenvereniging voor Beroepschartervaart (BBZ) to resolve it. The difference in policy between the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom also emerged.
In order to decide in the future on the passage of wind farms and obtain as many votes as possible in the North Sea Consultation, we are in close contact with the Chair of this Consultation: Ms. Sibylla Decker. We last spoke to her on August 30th.
In short, we will continue to discuss our position on the passage of wind farms at the highest level in close cooperation with our partners itinerant seafarers and the Professional Shipping Association (BBZ).
