PURPOSE: to simplify and streamline the existing EU
passenger ship safety regulatory framework (registration of persons
sailing on board).
PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and
of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Parliament decides in
accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal
footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: Council
Directive 98/41/EC the first piece of EU legislation
dealing with information on persons on board - provides for
counting and registration of passengers and crew on board of
passenger ships operating to and from the EU ports. It aims to
ensure that the safety of passengers is not compromised by
exceeding the maximum authorised number of persons on board and
that search and rescue in the aftermath of any accident can be
dealt with effectively.
Since 1998, however, other pieces of EU law and
international conventions dealing with related issues have entered
into force and new technological systems and solutions have been
developed. This has resulted in increasingly complex and
overlapping legal provisions dealing with the counting,
registration and reporting of persons on board.
Experience of implementation has shown that the
information on persons on board is not always readily available to
the competent authorities. According to the current
requirements, this information has to be stored in the company's
system and be at all times readily available for
transmission to the competent authority responsible for search and
rescue. This requirement ignores the development of systems such as
SafeSeaNet and the National Single Window and requires that
the national competent authority contacts the shipping company in
the event of an emergency. Moreover, the recorded data does not
always include information on nationality (i.e. besides name, age
and sex), making the assistance provided to victims and their
relatives more difficult. As a result, operators that already
transmit such data to the National
Single Window are subjected to a double reporting
regime.
In the spirit of the Commission's REFIT and
Better Regulation agenda and as an immediate follow-up to
the fitness
check on EU passenger ship safety legislation, the Commission
considers that the existing EU passenger ship safety regulatory
framework should be simplified and streamlined in order to (i)
maintain EU rules where necessary and proportionate; (ii) ensure
their correct implementation; and (iii) eliminate potential overlap
of obligations and inconsistencies between related pieces of
legislation.
The proposal is fully consistent with the
simplification proposals amending Directive 2009/45/EC
of the European Parliament and of the Council and the new
Directive replacing Council Directive 1999/35/EC.
CONTENT: the Commission proposes to amend Directive
98/41/EC in order to update, clarify and simplify the existing
requirements for counting and registration of passengers and
crew on board passenger ships while enhancing the level of safety
that they provide.
The main amendments are as follows:
- to align as far as possible the definitions with the
proposal amending Directive 2009/45/EC and with the proposal for a
new Directive replacing 1999/35/EC and to align the
responsibility of the passenger registrar with the proposal
to remove the requirement for the information required by this
Directive to be retained by the company ;
- to clarify the scope of the Directive and to bring it
in line with the definition of port areas as defined in
accordance with the proposal amending Directive
2009/45/EC;
- to replace the requirement to store the information on
the number of persons on board in the company by recording it in
the National Single Window or transmission by means
of Automatic Identification System;
- to introduce the information on nationality of
persons on board and to replace the requirement to store the
lists of passengers and crew by the company by recording it in the
National Single Window;
- to align the reference with the proposed means of data
transmission and to clarify the responsibilities of Member States
with respect to passenger ships flying the flag of a third
country;
- to reflect the new role of the passenger registrar
(i.e. not to store but to transmit the data) and to remove
the requirement to set up a company passenger registration
system;
- to reflect EU law on protection of personal
data and specifies that personal data shall be destroyed by the
company once transmitted to the single window (without prejudice to
other reporting obligations);
- to remove the outdated reference to the
exemption for regular services crossing the Strait of Messina,
and to remove the possibility to exempt operators from transmitting
the number of persons on board to the competent
authorities;
- to ensure that the exemption criteria reflect the
proximity of search and rescue facilities which are no longer
included in the new definition of protected sea areas;
- to simplify the notification of exemptions via a
database to be established and maintained for this
purpose;
- to align Directive 98/41/EC with the provisions of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the EU with regard to the power to
adopt delegated and implementing acts conferred on the
Commission.
DELEGATED ACTS: the proposal contains provisions
empowering the Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance
with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union.