Secretariat

Writing a foreword for the annual report of the EUROPEAN SKIPPER’S ORGANISATION (ESO) VzW is and remains a great challenge for me as president. I am therefore very proud to be able to present this report to you again for the 2023 working year!
And speaking of challenges! The European inland shipping sector – and more specifically our independent inland skippers/inland shipping entrepreneurs – also face extremely challenging issues in the coming years!

Without the ambition to be complete, I will nevertheless venture a brief summary: energy transition, greening, (new) crew regulation, staff shortages, automation, digitalization, etc., etc.
Every company – even outside our sector – is confronted with this today!

More in the macro-economic sphere, I should certainly add the aspect of “modal shift” as far as inland shipping is concerned. The necessary attention to our ecological environment is of course of (over) vital importance. However, in my opinion, this should be accompanied by healthy, pragmatic economic growth and incentives. ESO will work tirelessly to achieve this!
It makes me hopeful that, from my daily practice as an accountant, I can conclude that our (European) supporters are increasingly delving into each of these issues. In this regard, a very strong awareness process has been initiated!

ESO 50 years
The ESO, founded in 1975, will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. The necessary preparations for this are taking more concrete forms! You will be further informed about this in due course. This event is also a unique and fantastic challenge for our directors and myself. Perhaps this will also be a pivotal moment for many of us! We are looking forward to it!

I hereby invite you to read the more detailed explanation in this annual report, with thanks to our esteemed Secretary General Gerard Kester, and to carefully read his critical view on each of these topics.

Christiaan Van Lancker
president

Find the complete foreword and annual report (english/dutch) via this link.

Foreword ESO’s annual report 2018

Dear reader,

In my capacity as president of the European Skippers’Organisation (ESO) vzw it is truly an honor and pleasure to introduce to you our annual report on the 2018 working year.

Although ESO was already founded in 1975, now that legal entity has recently been acquired, this annual report gives us an opportunity to present to you an insight into the activities with which our skippers’ organisation is involved, naturally with the focus on Europe, the CCNR and other supra-national bodies.

With some sense of pride, I can state without a shadow of a doubt that with modest means, but with an international group of enthusiastic employees, we uphold the interests of inland shipping. In particular we attend to the interests of the independent entrepreneurs / skippers, almost in all its facets.
This is by no means an easy task and, as you can see in this report, a solid internal organisation has been set up.

The external structure has also been put on the European map since the end of 2017 with the establishment of the joint IWT platform (Inland Waterway Transport). In a joint composition with the European Barge Union (EBU), we focus with this platform on the enormous challenges facing the inland shipping sector in Europe.

I would like to take this opportunity to honor our former Secretary-General, Hester Duursema – who left us in 2018- for the groundbreaking work she has achieved in her relatively short stay with ESO!

I sincerely wish to thank all employees in front of and behind the scenes of ESO from the bottom of my heart for their disinterested, but very professional attitude and infectious workforce. Since 2012 I am allowed to be part of this excellent team.

PANTA RHEI… .. everything flows…. everything is moving …

Yours sincerely,                                      

Christiaan VanLancker, president.

Link to the annual report