ATHENS: The Greek government wants to persuade shipowners and shipping-insurance companies based in London to move their European Union headquarters to Greece as the U.K. prepares to exit the bloc.
“We’re in contact with five large ship-insurance brokers who are considering various EU member countries for the transfer of their headquarters,” Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroumblis said in an interview in Piraeus, Greece’s biggest port. Kouroumblis declined to name the firms as the talks are private. “We’ll meet by the latest in June to discuss the terms they’d like in order to choose Greece,” he said.
The government has also asked U.K.-based Greek shipowners to consider returning their headquarters to Greece after Brexit, even though the country can offer little in the way of financial incentives given its tight financial situation, the minister said. Greece will instead attempt to appeal to the shipowners’ patriotism, he said.
Greece is the world’s largest ship-owning nation, accounting for over 16 percent of the global merchant fleet ahead of Japan and China, according to the United Nations. Greek-owned vessels account for 22 percent of the world fleet and 50 percent of the EU’s maritime carrying capacity, Kouroumblis said.
The government wants Piraeus to become “one of the world’s largest shipping centers and a modern maritime cluster,” Kouroumblis said. “We want to create a service center for shipping in Piraeus,” he said.
