Commissioner Bulc welcomes appointment of Ki-tack Lim as Secretary General by the Assembly of the International Maritime Organization

Commissioner Bulc welcomes appointment of Ki-tack Lim as Secretary General by the Assembly of the International Maritime Organization

Today, the 171 members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) confirmed the appointment of Ki-tack Lim, currently president of Busan Port Authority, Republic of South Korea, as the next IMO Secretary General. Mr Lim will take up his post on 1 January 2016.

Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport at the European Commission concluded : "I congratulate Ki-tack Lim on his appointment and look forward to working with him in the future. Our common aim is to promote quality in global shipping on the basis of consensus. We look for improvements on many fronts including safety and security, environmental protection and measures against climate change".

IMO is a UN specialised agency which sets global standards for the safety, security and environmental performance of international shipping. Mr Lim takes over at a crucial time in terms of discussions at IMO on particular safety and environmental protection topics. In 2016 key priorities for the European Commission will be discussed at IMO : a far reaching decision is expected on an initiative by EU Member States to raise the standard for the stability of damaged passenger ships. In terms of environmental protection, the imminent COP21 discussions will have a critical impact in framing consideration of a greenhouse gas emission reduction target at IMO. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships the EU has already adopted regional rules for monitoring, reporting and verification of theses emissions and is actively engaging at IMO to introduce global greenhouse gas data collection scheme. IMO is expected to take a decision on the introduction of such a global scheme in 2016.