Activites

• 2002/01/22 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 2001/106
  • OJ L 019 22.01.2002, p. 0017-0031
• 2001/12/19 Final act signed
• 2001/12/19 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2001/12/13 Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading
  • T5-0695/2001 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the resolution by Mr Mark Francis WATTS (PES, UK) on the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee. (Please refer to the previous text).�

• 2001/12/12 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• #2395
• 2001/12/06 Council Meeting
• 2001/11/13 Final decision by Conciliation Committee
• 2001/11/12 Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs
  • 3657/2001
• 2001/10/24 Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading
  • A5-0440/2001
• #2374
• 2001/10/15 Council Meeting
  • 2374
• 2001/09/18 Formal meeting of Conciliation Committee
• 2001/08/20 Parliament's amendments rejected by Council
• 2001/05/16 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T5-0260/2001 summary

    The European Parliament approved the resolution by Mr Mark WATTS (PES, UK) on the common position on a directive on international standards for ship safety, pollution prevention and shipboard living and working conditions (Port State Control) with two amendments. The legislation means that ships not respecting international conventions and standards will be banned from Community ports but the amendments seek to require vessels over 300 tonnes to be fitted with 'black boxes' or Voyage Data Recorders within five years. �

• 2001/05/15 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2001/04/25 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A5-0140/2001
• 2001/02/28 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #2332
• 2001/02/26 Council Meeting
  • 05179/1/2001 summary

    The Council has adopted a common position on a text which reflects the content of the amended proposal adopted by the Commission after Parliament's first reading, and incorporates several new provisions. The most significant amendments concern the provisons on expanded mandatory inspections and on refusal of access to Community ports. The common position reflects the concern for flexibility voiced by Member States with the prospect of an increased workload, but at the same time shows their commitment to stepping up port State controls in the European Union. Compared with its previous stance, particularly that expressed on 2 October, the Council thus accepts a significant increase in the number of expanded inspections carried out and stricter application of the procedure for refusing access to Community ports for ships flying the flag of countries on the Paris MOU blacklist, and has made a clear political commitment to require ships sailing in Community waters to be equipped with "black boxes". Thus the common position as a whole remains true to the ambitious objectives of the Commission's proposal.�

• 2000/12/13 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(2000)0850 summary

    During its 30 November 2000 Plenary Session, the European Parliament approved, subject to a number of amendments, the Commission's proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive 95/21/EC on port state control. The European Parliament agrees with the main elements of the Commission's proposal: to make the inspection regime of certain potentially dangerous ships mandatory rather than discretionary, to tighten the measures against manifestly substandard ships and to ensure an improved implementation of the Directive provisions. However, the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism has formulated several amendments in view of integrating the Commission's proposal and make stricter the provisions concerning the refusal of access measure and the implementation of the Port State Control. On the basis of these amendments which have been adopted by the European Parliament, the Commission proposes to introduce some new elements to its original text. The Commission is prepared to incorporate those suggestions and amendments aiming at sending a stronger signal to substandard operators and negligent flag States to the extent that the coherence with the Law of Sea, the International Convention, other European legislative initiatives and the scope of the port state control Directive itself is not affected. The control carried out by the State of the port is solely intended to verify whether the ship complies with the international requirements and not to indirectly impose additional equipment. For these reasons the Commission cannot accept the proposal to ban from the European ports all the ships that are not equipped with the voyage data recorder (VDR) since under international law only certain categories of vessels are required to be equipped with a VDR. In addition, this is not coherent with another adopted amendment proposing that - under the inspection activity - the failure to be equipped with Voyage data recorder (insofar as required) should be considered as a serious deficiency that merits to be rectified before the departure of the vessel. The Commission further wishes to avoid measures that would be disproportionate in comparison to the principles and the goals of the port state control. For these reasons the Commission cannot accept the proposal to ban all ships, irrespective of their detention history, solely because they are flagged to a State on the Paris MOU list of flags with a detention record above the average (black-list). Moreover, the Commission cannot accept the statement that the banning measures should also cover the transit in the territorial waters and the above statement on the risk posed by ships flagged to a State appearing in the very high risk section of the Paris MOU black-list. The Commission agrees with the Parliament on the need to strongly commit Member States to create appropriate PSC bodies both in terms of quantity and quality and to ensure a regular information on the implementation of Port State Control. It finally considered that the control ensured by the Port State Control should pay particular attention to thecompliance with the VDR requirement. �

  • DG ['Energy and Transport'],
• 2000/11/30 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0532/2000 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the report by Mr Mark Francis WATTS (PES, Uk). However, this text was subject to various amendments which highlight the importance the Parliament attaches to maritime transport safety and environmental protection. (Refer to the previous document as the amendments adopted by the committee responsible mirrored those adopted by the House). �

• 2000/11/20 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0343/2000
• #2292
• 2000/10/02 Council Meeting
  • 2292
• #2279
• 2000/06/26 Council Meeting
  • 2279 summary

    The Council took note of progress in the discussions on the Directive proposed by the Commission. It instructed the Permanent Representatives Committee to step up proceedings on that dossier so that the Council could reach an agreement at its October meeting and thus advance the codecision procedure with the Parliament. Furthermore, the Council adopted conclusion on maritime safety. In relation to these conclusions, the Council: - reaffirms its resolve to pursue and step up a maritime safety policy at international, Community and national level to reduce the risk of accidents, thus avoiding loss of human life and preventing pollution of marine environment; - recognises that acceptance, by any part of the shipping industry, of substandard practices affects protection of people and the environment, vessel safety and fair competition and that the elimination of such practices will be beneficial for all parties involved and help bring about a universal culture of safety and quality; - calls on the Member States to evaluate the situation and, where necessary, to tailor human resources and means required to the various tasks to be carried out by them and to introduce a quality management system; - points out the need to develop exchanges of experience between the Member States on organisational matters and working methods in particular by a better coordination of the activities of Vessel Traffic Services, with a view to establishing improved procedures and requirement levels; - supports the development and extension of the EQUASIS information system so as to bring greater transparency of information of the safety and quality of merchant vessels worldwide; - realising that the improvement of maritime safety requires fully qualified crews and good shipboard working conditions; - considers that special heed should be paid to seaborne trade of oil and other hazardous substances. The Council also urges the Member States, bearing in mind the importance of involving non-EU countries as well, strongly to support work under way within the IMO that should result in a quick and adequate revision of Annex I to the MARPOL Convention so as to eliminate the risk of shipping in single-hull oil tankers. In addition, the Council calls on the Commission and the Member States to pursue the objective of increasing the ceiling for compensation per accident laid down by the International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (IOPCF) with a view, in particular, to providing better coverage for damage to the environment, and to work for that purpose with non-EU countries as well. The Council requests the Commission to consider developing, when appropriate, a European database on accidents and incidents at sea. In conclusion, it points out that pursuit of maritime safety policy depends on proper, effective application of existing legislation, including general Community measures on health and working conditions applicable to the maritime sector. It reiterates the aim of maintaining and promoting seafaring occupations in Europe, by means of increased interest in such work on the part of young Europeans and appropriate jobtraining. To this end, it calls on the Commission to submit a communication on the recruitment and training of seafarers, bearing in mind in particular the suggestion made by the social partners.�

• 2000/05/03 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2000/03/21 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2000)0142 summary

    PURPOSE : to present the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 95/21/EC concerning the enforcement, in respect of shipping using Community ports and sailing in the waters under the jurisdiction of the Member States, of international standards for ship safety, pollution prevention and shipboard living and working conditions (port State control). CONTENT : since Directive 95/21/EC was adopted, substantial efforts have been made - particularly under the auspices of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control - to improve the uniformity and efficiency of inspection procedures. However, important disparities still remain within the Community and ships that pose a high risk to the environment are not inspected with sufficient rigour when they call at European ports. The reasons that have led the Commission to propose amending the Directive include the following: - several Member States are still failing to comply with the 25% threshold laid down in the Directive for inspections of individual ships; - the target factor system developed in the framework of the Paris MOU and made mandatory by the Directive is not being applied in a satisfactory manner; - examination of the reports on the inspections carried out before the sinking of Erika seem to show that the expanded inspections conducted in application of the Directive were not always performed with the necessary rigour. Furthermore, it has not been possible from this examination to verify the extent to which the guidelines in Annex V were followed and what checks were made. The Commission therefore proposes a number of measures designed to improve and strengthen the inspection regime laid down in the Port State Control Directive. The following amendments are proposed: 1) banning manifestly sub-standard ships from European waters; 2) obligation to inspect ships posing a high risk to maritime safety and the marine environment; 3) follow-up to the result of the inspections; 4) informing the flag State and the classification societies; 5) verification of the financial guarantee covering the pollution risk; 6) transparency of information on the ships inspected or detained in accordance with the Directive; 7) monitoring application of the Directive and assessing the performance of Member States. In addition, Article 17 of Directive 95/21/EC stipulates that Member States must provide certain information on the number of inspectors to Port State control and the number of individual ships entering their ports in a representative calendar year. This information enables the Commisson to verify the compliance with the 25% threshold for inspections laid down in Article 5(1), but it is not enough to carry out a detailed examination of the proper application of the Directives provisions, which is its duty under the treaty, and to initiate, where necessary, infringement proceedings against defaulting Member States. Consequently, possible laxpractices in certain Community ports are not detected and the risks of varying safety standards and distortion of competition between ports persist. The Commission therefore proposes increasingly the frequency for transmission of this data (annually rather than every three years as at present) and adding new items to the list of information to be submitted to the Commission. A new Annex is added to the Directive, requiring Member States to provide detailed information to the Commission on movements of ships in ports, classified according to various criteria (age, flag, size, etc.).�

  • DG ['Energy and Transport'],

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2000)0142
• Debate in Council: 2279
• Debate in Council: 2292
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A5-0343/2000
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0532/2000
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(2000)0850
• Council position published: 05179/1/2001
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A5-0140/2001
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T5-0260/2001
• Debate in Council: 2374
• Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading: A5-0440/2001
• Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs: 3657/2001
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading: T5-0695/2001
• : Directive 2001/106
• : OJ L 019 22.01.2002, p. 0017-0031

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)