The European Maritime cluster plays an important role for sustainable development of the whole European Union. According to the strategic goals and recommendations for the EU’s maritime transport policy until 2018 , in recent years, maritime transport industries have created many jobs, directly and indirectly. According to a research done for the maritime policy paper of The Netherlands , 70% of the value added generated by shipping activities on shore, whereas 30% is created at sea. The growing shortage of maritime professionals, officers and ratings entails the risk of losing the critical mass of human resources that sustains the competitiveness of the European maritime industries in general. There is a serious risk knowledge and skills will be lost because of a mismatch between the maritime labour market and education with an increasing demand for higher educated workforce on the one hand and a higher quantitiative need to compensate an ageing workforce. Therefore the aim of this article is to uncover the importance of maritime education for sustainable development of EU maritime cluster and to define a framework for longitudinal research program, providing understanding of the relationship between maritime education, knowledge infrastructure and national and European cluster competitiveness.