MEPs call for tougher rules to improve safety at sea

Maritime accident numbers may be falling, but the threats stemming from failure to comply with safety standards remain.  Even though, in the wake of the Erika and Prestige oil-spill accidents, the EU introduced legislation to improve maritime safety, further measures are needed to prevent accidents and pollution and to deal with the aftermath of accidents.  The recent accidents off the UK coast and in the Messina straits further underline the need for more robust safety rules.

 

Boosting the effectiveness of existing safety measures is the key aim of the European Commission's "third maritime safety package", upon which the committee approved its seven reports - all almost unanimously - on 27 February. 

 

 

This report is one of the key elements in the package. The Commission is proposing that the various International Maritime Organisation conventions on flag state obligations should be turned into binding legislation and that the EU Member States must be required to monitor compliance with international standards by ships that fly their flags. The Council strongly opposes this directive, believing that the Community is not competent to take action in this field and arguing that these matters should be left into international law.

 

The Transport Committee urged broad support for the Commission proposal and saw a great number of amendments adopted aimed at even strengthening the proposed legislation. The general principle is that the safety of Community shipping and of citizens using it, and of operators providing shipping services, and the protection of the environment should be ensured at all times.

 

Members think that the Codes of Safe Practices for Ships Carrying Timber Deck Cargoes and for Safe Practice for Solid Bulk Cargoes should be incorporated in all the seven directives in the third maritime package because of their special risks for maritime safety. Bulk carriers, for instance, have proved to be one of the most dangerous types of vessels and timber cargoes were prone to shift in rough seas.

 

Each Member State should ensure the training of flag State surveyors and investigators and should develop a capability for reviewing, approving and authorising ship construction and equipment designs.

 

Parliament would make it a requirement for the first registration of a ship in a Member State that this Member State should ascertain whether this ship complies with the applicable international rules and regulations and ensure that this is confirmed by documentary evidence. If the ship is not newly built, it shall liaise with the previous flag State and request it to pass on the necessary documents and data.  MEPs also want the Member States to develop data exchange systems to help prevent and resolve accidents and deficiencies.

 

 

 

At present, for most damage by ships to third parties, civil liability regimes for ship-owners in Europe are not harmonised and no compulsory insurance scheme exists. The draft directive seeks to put in place "core" rules, common to all Member States, governing civil liability, insurance for ship-owners and the liability of any person responsible for operating a ship. It would do this by incorporating the IMO Convention on the Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (LLMC) into EU law.

 

At the vote this morning, Parliament took the view that protecting European costs involved the dual aspects of preventing accidents by ensuring that only safe ships sail and of providing that victims can, in as short a time as possible, receive fully commensurate with the damage caused by an accident. (am 2). Member States and third countries should ratify also the international convention on bunker oil convention, the convention on hazardous and noxious substances by sea (the HNS convention).

 

With the recent maritime disasters in mind, Parliament also gave a definition of gross negligence: this means conduct showing an unusual lack of due care and a consequent disregard of what should in principle have been clear to everyone in a given situation. Parliament deliberately wanted this definition to keep simple, in order to ensure its enforceability in practice.

 

The House adopted proposals which said that Member States should monitor compliance with the rules laid down in the directive and should establish penalties for the infringement of these rules.  Members also suggested the setting-up of a solidarity fund to cover damage caused by ships without a financial guarantee. This fund should be set up to compensate third parties that have suffered damage caused by ships which have sailed in EU territorial waters without being covered by a financial guarantee certificate. Finally, a Community Office should be established which is responsible for keeping a full register of certificates issued, monitoring and updating their validity and checking the existence of financial guarantees registered by third countries.

 

 

Under the previous two maritime safety packages (known as ‘Erika I’ and ‘Erika II’), the European Union adopted a range of legislation on maritime security and safety, including inspections of ships in port and a ban on using single-hull vessels to transport oil, and the creation of a European Maritime Safety Agency.