Cyprus Marine Club’s 8th AGM

Cyprus Marine Club held its 8th Annual General Meeting at Epsilon, Limassol Marina, on 26 May 2023.

The President of the Cyprus Marine Club, Capt. Eberhard Koch, could not be present at the AGM therefore the Vice President, Andreas Chrysostomou opened the Meeting, and the General Secretary, Julia Paczkowska, presented the President’s Annual Report, updating members about recent developments, membership numbers, a summary of past events, and future outlooks.

“I strongly believe that the BOD and the Membership can be proud of the season 2022/2023 and I would love to see the same sense spirit of membership and fellowship also next season,” Capt. Koch said in the report.

He thanked Members and Board Members for their support over the past twelve months, which contributed to even greater success for the Club. Special words of appreciation and recognition were given to all Annual Sponsors of the Club as well as Sponsors of the special events, namely Cyprus Union of Shipowners, Island Oil Holdings, and OL Shipping Group.

“Today, as every year, we all owe special acknowledgment to our Sponsors whose contribution has assisted us in bringing well-supported developments and opportunities to further enhance your membership.”

Words of recognition also went to the entire Board of Directors for their yearly support as well as to the speakers, including former Shipping Deputy Minister, Vassilios Demetriades, the Honorary Member of the Club, who was present at the event and addressed the members:

“I do believe what this Club offers to the Cyprus shipping community is invaluable through the opportunity that you bring all together to express views, concerns, and ideas so congratulations on this great job and you should consider myself very active from now on.”

The new corporate Member of the Cyprus Marine Club – Intership Navigation – was announced and welcomed with warm applause. Intership Navigation is nr. 153 on the Members List which has been expanding at a very satisfactory pace.

Following the Vice President’s invitation to sponsors for short speeches, Polys V. Hajioannou, representing Safe Bulkers, Inc. and the Cyprus Union of Shipowners, conveyed a message from CUS President Andreas Hadjiyiannis and the entire executive committee of the Union, underlining the importance and duty of the entire shipping community to support the Cyprus Flag / Cyprus Registry.

“Cyprus has a very vibrant shipping community but at the same time we are here because we have a shipping registry, we have a Cyprus Flag and I believe that all shipping companies located on the island must support in the best way possible our shipping registry. If we don’t have a strong shipping registry, we won’t have anything. There won’t be any reason for us to gather here, to have offices here or to meet in the Marine Club or in other Clubs (…),” he said. "If we don’t have a registry, we don’t have a reason to have any framework and Cyprus will not have any say in the big shipping decisions that will hit us very soon" (…) "We need to have a strong voice (..) ".

Following Hajioannou's speech, short addresses were given by Michalis Hadjistylianou, representing the Club’s Gold Sponsor OneNovation, Sunil Kapoor, representing Silver Sponsor - FML Shipmanagement, Andreas Christophides representing the Silver Sponsor - Lapwings Maritime, and Andreas Chrysostomou, representing the Platinum Sponsor- Tototheo Maritime.

Immediately after all the speeches were delivered, the Vice President proceeded with, and successfully concluded the Agenda of the CMC 8th Annual General Assembly. Special thanks were given to the entire PNS team for the flawless organisation each month.

A cocktail reception with a buffet in a splendid environment near the sea opened to members of the Club, and ended late in the evening.