Happy Birthday OCEAN!

OCEAN turns 40 in 2016

 OCEAN was founded in 1976 and will celebrate its 40th birthday in 2016.

39 years ago, in order to promote the specific interests of Shipsuppliers in the European Union, ISSA the International Shipsupply and Services Association, created a special European Shipsupply Committee in 1976, which began operations under the name of O.C.E.A.N, short for the French title: “Organisation de la Communauté Européenne des Avitailleurs de Navires”.

This was felt necessary in view of the new regulations being formed by the EEC authorities concerning shipsupply. With the exception of Luxemburg, all Member States of the EEC were important maritime nations.   

The first task of O.C.E.A.N. was to study and discuss the drafts of an EEC regulation laying down the customs procedure for the supply of stores to vessels, aircraft and international trains. A first revision appeared in 1976, which was followed by further revisions. The OCEAN committee recommended various alterations due to the practicalities on ship supplying.

Since that time, OCEAN has followed actively the work of the European institutions, publishing the document “Ship Supply Export Trade moving into 1993”, at the beginning of the Single Market. O.C.E.A.N. was renamed in November 2008 as “OCEAN – European Shipsuppliers Organization” as the voice of the ship supplying industry of Europe towards the European institutions and European governments.