For the first time on 8 February 2024, Mr. Arsenio Dominguez visited the Association’s premises, marking another milestone in HELMEPA’s 42-year history dedicated to healthy seas, safety at sea, and sustainable development. The Chairperson, Semiramis Paliou, extended a warm welcome, alongside Vice Chairperson George Karageorgiou, Secretary General Irene Daifas, Treasurer Aristidis Pittas, Special Secretary George Kallianis, Board Members Michalis Dalacouras, Andreas Giakoumelos, Maria Hajioannou, Eleni Polychronopoulou, Panos Zachariadis, along with Legal Advisor Nikos Gerassimou, Harris Antoniou, the Director General, Olga Stavropoulou, the Head of Maritime Costas Triantafyllou, and the Secretariat team.

The visit marks the long-standing collaboration between IMO and HELMEPA, as well as their joint commitment towards promoting pollution prevention, safety at sea, sustainable development, inclusion, and diversity in the shipping industry.

For over four decades, HELMEPA has been contributing to the IMO's mission by training more than 33,000 seafarers and shipping professionals. HELMEPA is a regular attendant of IMO’s MEPC and MSC meetings as a technical advisor to the Greek Delegation. Furthermore, as part of INTERMEPA ― the umbrella organization comprising HELMEPA and sister Associations in Cyprus, Nigeria, North America, Turkey, Philippines, Ukraine, and Uruguay ― is spreading the spirit of voluntary commitment worldwide and promoting the shipping industry's value proposition across all levels of society.

Few days later, on 15 February 2024, the President of the IMO’s World Maritime University, Professor Max Mejia, was the keynote speaker at HELMEPA’s Training Committee working meeting, welcomed by HELMEPA Chairperson, Semiramis Paliou, and Andreas Martinos of the Minerva Group and host organization i.e. Athina Maritime Learning and Development Centre. Together with members of the Training Committee they elaborated on the specific new skills and competences required by seafarers for the handling of alternative fuels and other issues related to maritime decarbonization. A relevant non-paper will be shared with HELMEPA’s community.

Key part of the discussions with both IMO and WMU was on HELMEPA’s landmark project METAVASEA (the Greek word for “transition”), that was announced at COP28 by the US State Department as one of the 50 new entries of the Green Shipping Challenge. METAVASEA places the human element at the heart of maritime decarbonization through the training and upskilling of 1,500 seafarers, shipping professionals, and port workers in new fuels, digital awareness, sustainability, and soft skills. It also seeks to boost the involvement of shipping companies and ports in maritime decarbonization initiatives, offer insights into shipping and community readiness for new fuels, identify region-specific opportunities, gaps, and challenges and raise climate awareness among 10,000 schoolchildren, 750 teachers and 2 million residents of the East Mediterranean ― a climate change “hot spot”. The project is supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and brings together 6 partners, 12 associate partners and 60 supporting organizations in Greece, Cyprus, and the wider East Mediterranean.

Semiramis Paliou also addressed representatives from twenty-three HELMEPA member-companies and supporting organizations, congratulating them on the remarkable results, both qualitative and quantitative. The Refresher Training Program for the year 2023 achieved a record-breaking participation, with 3,484 attendees, including 1,500 foreign crews. Notably, 90% of participants rated the training program as very good/excellent. The program, conducted within the HELMEPA Academy framework, received collective support and featured 31 webinars and seminars totaling 156 hours. It engaged 185 shipping companies and organizations in fostering excellence within the maritime community.

As an expression of HELMEPA’s gratitude for the longstanding and joint efforts for safe ships in healthy seas, HELMEPA Chairperson Ms. Paliou presented commemorative plaques to Mr. Dominguez and Prof. Mejia.