REPORT on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety rules and standards for passenger ships (recast)

8.7.2008 - (COM(2007)0737 – C6‑0442/2007 – 2007/0257(COD)) - ***I

Committee on Legal Affairs
Rapporteur: József Szájer
(Recast – Rule 80a of the Rules of Procedure)

Procedure : 2007/0257(COD)
Document stages in plenary
Document selected :  
A6-0300/2008
Texts tabled :
A6-0300/2008
Debates :
Texts adopted :

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety rules and standards for passenger ships (recast)

(COM(2007)0737 – C6 0442/2007 – 2007/0257(COD))

(Codecision procedure - recast)

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2007)0737),

–   having regard to Article 251(2) and Article 80(2) of the EC Treaty, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C6‑0442/2007),

–   having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 28 November 2001 on a more structured use of the recasting technique for legal acts[1],

–   having regard to Rules 80a and 51 of its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A6‑0300/2008),

A. whereas, according to the Consultative Working Party of the Legal Services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the proposal in question does not include any substantive amendments other than those identified as such in the proposal and whereas, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier acts together with those amendments, the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing texts, without any change in their substance,

1.  Approves the Commission proposal as adapted to the recommendations of the Consultative Working Party of the Legal Services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission;

2.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it intends to amend its proposal substantially or replace it with another text;

3.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and the Commission.

  • [1]  OJ C 77, 28.3.2002, p. 1.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission[1] was amended by Council Decision 2006/512/EC of 17 July 2006[2]. Article 5a of amended Decision 1999/468/EC introduced the new 'regulatory procedure with scrutiny' (RPS) for 'measures of a general scope which seek to amend non-essential elements of a basic instrument adopted in accordance with codecision, inter alia by deleting some of those elements or by supplementing the instrument by the addition of new non-essential elements'.

Following the screening of the existing legislation and on-going procedures[3], the European Commission presented inter alia this recast proposal, transformed from a codification in order to incorporate the amendments necessary for the alignment to RPS.

In its decision of 12 December 2007 the Conference of Presidents designated the Committee on Legal Affaires as the lead Committee to deal with this 'comitology alignment' and the specialised committees as opinion-giving committees. The Conference of Committee Chairs agreed on 15 January 2008 on the modalities of cooperation between the Committee on Legal Affairs and the other committees involved.

Having consulted the sectoral committee responsible for this dossier, the Committee on Legal Affairs accepts the alignment to RPS as proposed and does not propose any amendments, apart from the technical adaptations suggested by the Consultative Working Party of the Legal Services.

LETTER OF THE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT AND TOURISM

Mr Giuseppe GARGANI                                                                          TRAN/D/2008/33528

Chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs

ASP 09E206

Brussels

Subject:          Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety rules and standards for passenger ships (Recast) - (COM(2007)0737 - 2007/0257 (COD))

Dear Mr GARGANI,

The Committee on Transport and Tourism at its meeting of 29 May 2008 has examined the proposal referred to above, pursuant to the decision of the Conference of Presidents (CoP) of 12 December 2007 to designate the Committee on Legal Affairs as the lead Committee to deal with the revision of existing legislative measures to be adapted to the new regulatory procedure with scrutiny and to ensure that the specialised committees are associated by opinions.

The Committee on Transport and Tourism unanimously recommends your committee, as the committee responsible, to accept the alignment without modifications (amendments) as proposed in the annex.

Yours sincerely,

Paolo Costa

Annex: List

Cc:      Mr Jarzembowski, draftsman TRAN

           Mr Szájer, rapporteur JURI

ANNEX

Observations of JURI Committee on the COM proposal

Proposed European Parliament position

partial alignment to RPS, with the regulatory procedure maintained for Articles 6(3)(d), 9(4) and 9(5)(c).

OK

Clarification: Adaptations of the annexes are with RPS (art. 10). The regulatory procedure is maintained for measures that are not of general scope, because they are taken with respect to only one or more Member states (art. 6(3) and 9 (4) and (5)).

ANNEX: OPINION IN LETTER FORM OF THE LEGAL SERVICES' CONSULTATIVE WORKING PARTY

OPINION

FOR THE ATTENTION OF           THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

                                                       THE COUNCIL

                                                       THE COMMISSION

Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety rules and standards for passenger ships (recast)

COM(2007)0737 of 29.11.2007 - 2007/0257 (COD)

Having regard to the Inter-institutional Agreement of 28 November 2001 on a more structured use of the recasting technique for legal acts, and in particular to point 9 thereof, the Consultative Working Party consisting of the respective legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission met on 12 December 2007 for the purpose of examining, among others, the aforementioned proposal submitted by the Commission.

At that meeting[1], an examination of the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council recasting Council Directive 98/18/EC of 17 March 1998 on safety rules and standards for passenger ships resulted in the Consultative Working Party’s establishing, by common accord, as follows.

1) In Article 6(1)(c), second sentence, the final wording "Solas regulation V/12(r)" appearing in the original text of Directive 98/18/EC as published in the Official Journal should be reinstated in the place of the adapted wording "Regulation 12, Chapter V of the 1974 SOLAS Convention" appearing in the text of the recast proposal.

2) In Annex I, Chapter II-2, Part B, point 16, the wording ".1 Not later than 1 October 2000:", appearing in the original text of Directive 2002/25/EC as published in the Official Journal, should be re-introduced immediately after the initial wording "In addition to the requirements for existing class B ships in this Chapter II-2, existing class B ships carrying more than 36 passengers shall comply with the following requirements:". After point .3.10, the wording ".2 Not later than 1 October 2003:", also appearing in the original text of Directive 2002/25/EC as published in the Official Journal, should equally be re-introduced.

In consequence, examination of the proposal has enabled the Consultative Working Party to conclude, without dissent, that the proposal does not comprise any substantive amendments other than those identified as such therein or in the present opinion. The Working Party also concluded, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier act with those substantive amendments, that the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing text, without any change in its substance.

C. PENNERA                                  J.-C. PIRIS                                      M. PETITE

Jurisconsult                                       Jurisconsult                                       Director General

  • [1]  The Consultative Working Party had at its disposal the English, French and German language versions of the proposal and worked on the basis of the English version, being the master-copy language version of the text under discussion.

PROCEDURE

Title

Safety rules and standards for passenger ships (recast version)

References

COM(2007)0737 – C6-0442/2007 – 2007/0257(COD)

Date submitted to Parliament

29.11.2007

Committee responsible

       Date announced in plenary

JURI

19.2.2008

Committee(s) asked for opinion(s)

       Date announced in plenary

TRAN

19.2.2008

 

 

 

Not delivering opinions

       Date of decision

TRAN

18.12.2007

 

 

 

Rapporteur(s)

       Date appointed

József Szájer

19.12.2007

 

 

Date adopted

26.6.2008

 

 

 

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

24

0

0

Members present for the final vote

Carlo Casini, Titus Corlăţean, Bert Doorn, Monica Frassoni, Giuseppe Gargani, Neena Gill, Othmar Karas, Piia-Noora Kauppi, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, Hans-Peter Mayer, Manuel Medina Ortega, Hartmut Nassauer, Aloyzas Sakalas, Francesco Enrico Speroni, Diana Wallis, Rainer Wieland, Jaroslav Zvěřina, Tadeusz Zwiefka

Substitute(s) present for the final vote

Sharon Bowles, Vicente Miguel Garcés Ramón, Jean-Paul Gauzès, Eva Lichtenberger, József Szájer, Ieke van den Burg