The 52nd Annual Meeting of the European Tugowners Association (ETA) will be held in Athens from 13 until 15 May 2015. ETA's member Alexander G. Tsavliris & Sons will host the 2015 Annual Meeting, a return to Greece since the 1993 meeting in Crete.

The three-day programme will include a meeting of the Supervisory Committee, the Annual Meeting of Members, a Conference of Members and Associates and a Social Day. The Conference topic is "Towage in a global shipping context".

Since 1964, Full and Associate Members gather each year, invariably in one of the European littoral countries where members operate. The European Tugowners Association was formally established in London on 1 July 1963 and transferred to Brussels in 2002. It is one of Europe's oldest maritime trade organisations. The Association is widely recognised as the sole representative body of European tugowners and operators striving for safe and efficient maritime transport and port services within Europe.

At present, the ETA has 81 full members in 21 countries who own or operate a combined fleet of some 700 tugs in European ports/installations. The membership encompasses family businesses and port authorities with very small to medium size tug fleets as well as the major towage companies operating well over 100 tugs in Europe and a much larger number worldwide.

Each member-country has a Representative on the Supervisory Committee, nominated by the full members of the individual countries or the respective national tugowners association. Nicolas A. Tsavliris is the Representative for Greece.

Tsavliris Salvage Group is one of the most active emergency response contractors for maritime casualties worldwide, as well as the most frequent user of LOF contracts. With tugs on permanent stations at strategic locations, the Group's international activities embrace every service relating to marine salvage and towage, extending to complex wreck removals and partnering today's shipowner in fulfilling the obligation to protect the marine environment from pollution.

Tsavliris Salvage Group celebrates 100 years from the birth of the company's founding father, Alexander  George Tsavliris; 75 years from the commencement of the first Tsavliris shipping company and 50 years from the foundation of Tsavliris Salvage in 1964.