COVID-19 and European maritime futures: different pathways to deal with the pandemic

The aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis and the re-development of maritime sectors in the EU will be unprecedented. This article deals with the consequences of COVID-19 for the maritime sectors’ cruise tourism, shipping, and fisheries. To give insight into the consequences of the pandemic on the longer term and to discuss these consequences in a systematic way, this article develops four potential maritime futures. These potential maritime futures are based on two key choices, the development of the EU and state-aid to maritime sectors. The first choice concerns a connected and solidary Europe versus a fragmented and differentiated EU. The second choice concerns the development of active maritime industry policies by the EU and Member States versus a neo-liberal free market model. Combining these two choices results in four potential maritime futures: “on board”, “single-handed sailing”, “all hands on deck”, and “to give a wide berth”. These maritime futures differ from each other in (marine) governance structures and processes and the support given to maritime sectors. The maritime futures give insight into the enabling and constraining conditions to deal with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in specific, and how the maritime futures will affect the sustainable development of maritime sectors in general. For each of the maritime futures, the enabling and constraining conditions to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic are described, and the uncertainties of the future development of maritime sectors in the post COVID-19 period are discussed.