REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 with regard to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union

10.1.2019 - (COM(2018)0567 – C8‑0384/2018 – 2018/0298(COD)) - ***I

Committee on Transport and Tourism
Rapporteur: Isabella De Monte

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 with regard to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union

(COM(2018)0567 – C8‑0384/2018 – 2018/0298(COD))

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2018)0567),

–  having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 100(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C8‑0384/2018),

–  having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 17 October 2018[1],

–  after consulting the Committee of the Regions,

–  having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A8-0004/2019),

1.  Adopts its position at first reading, taking over the Commission proposal;

2.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

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

Amendment    1 Proposal for a regulation Article 1 – paragraph 1 Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 Article 8 – paragraph 1

Text proposed by the Commission Amendment 1.  All the recognised organisations shall be assessed by the Commission, together with the Member State(s) which authorised them in accordance with Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/15/EC, on a regular basis and at least every two years to verify that they meet the obligations under this Regulation and fulfil the minimum criteria set out in Annex I. The assessment shall be confined to those activities of the recognised organisations, which fall within the scope of this Regulation. 1.  All the recognised organisations shall be assessed by the Commission, together with the Member State(s) which authorised them in accordance with Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/15/EC, on a regular basis and at least every two years to verify that they meet the obligations under this Regulation and fulfil the minimum criteria set out in Annex I. The assessment shall be confined to those activities of the recognised organisations, which fall within the scope of this Regulation. The Commission shall facilitate the participation of Member States in the assessment by establishing an oversight programme which may be used by Member States in fulfilling their obligations under IMO Resolution A.1070(28) and Article 9 of Directive 2009/15/EC."

• [1]  Not yet published in the Official Journal.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

1.  Current situation

On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom submitted notification of its intention to withdraw from the Union pursuant to Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. This means that all Union primary and secondary law will cease to apply to the United Kingdom from 30 March 2019. The United Kingdom will then become a third country.

Consequently, the EU legislation on maritime transport will no longer apply to the United Kingdom. One of the areas of Union law that would be affected is the recognition at the Union level of organisations providing services for the inspection and survey of ships flying the flag of Member States (‘Recognised Organisations’).

Article 8(1) of Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 requires ship inspection and survey organisations recognised at EU level by the Commission to be assessed at least every two years by the Commission together with the Member State that submitted the initial request for recognition of the organisation (‘sponsor’ Member State).

It follows from Articles 7 and 8 of the Regulation that in order to continue enjoying EU recognition, recognised organisations must continue to meet the requirements and minimum criteria set out in Annex I of the Regulation. This is verified through the continuous re-assessment conducted by the Commission and the ‘sponsor’ Member State under Article 8(1).

As of its withdrawal, the United Kingdom will no longer be in a position to participate in the assessments carried out pursuant to Article 8(1) of the Regulation for those organisations for which the United Kingdom acts as the sponsor Member State. Consequently, the continued validity of the recognition for these organisations at EU level could be called into question and could not be clarified with sufficient legal certainty under the existing provisions of the Regulation.

Organisations’ potential loss of EU recognition due to the United Kingdom’s withdrawal could have adverse consequences for the competitiveness and appeal of the EU-27 Member States' flags that have authorised these Recognised Organisations to act on their behalf for the purposes of carrying out statutory ship inspections, surveys and certification. The recognised organisations affected currently have authorisation agreements with the majority of the EU-27 Member States and after the United Kingdom’s withdrawal, they would not be able to make use of these Recognised Organisations for their flagged fleet. At the same time, shipowners using these organisations also for classification purposes would face the dilemma of either out-flagging their ships to a non-EU flag or risking breaching their current private contracts for classification of their ships with the relevant organisations.

2.  The Commission proposal

The Commission proposal would amend Article 8(1) of the Regulation by replacing the current requirement, under which only the ‘sponsor’ Member State shall participate in the regular assessment process conducted by the Commission, by introducing the participation of any Member State which has authorised one of the Recognised Organisations. It would allow the assessment to be carried out by the Commission together with any Member State which has authorised the relevant recognised organisation to act on its behalf for the purposes of Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/15/EC3, and not only the ‘sponsor’ Member State.

3.  Your rapporteur proposal

Your rapporteur welcomes the Commission proposal and believes that it would resolve the legal uncertainty created in the area of recognised organisations by the United Kingdom's withdrawal, it would safeguard business continuity for the affected shipowners and the competitiveness of the flags of the EU-27 Member States working with the affected organisations.

The rapporteur therefore proposes adopting the Commission´s proposal without amendment.

PROCEDURE – COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Title	Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 with regard to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union
References	COM(2018)0567 – C8-0384/2018 – 2018/0298(COD)
Date submitted to Parliament	1.8.2018
Committee responsible        Date announced in plenary	TRAN 10.9.2018
Rapporteurs        Date appointed	Isabella De Monte 23.10.2018
Discussed in committee	3.12.2018
Date adopted	10.1.2019
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	46 0 2
Members present for the final vote	Daniela Aiuto, Lucy Anderson, Inés Ayala Sender, Georges Bach, Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, Deirdre Clune, Michael Cramer, Luis de Grandes Pascual, Karima Delli, Isabella De Monte, Ismail Ertug, Jacqueline Foster, Tania González Peñas, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Merja Kyllönen, Innocenzo Leontini, Peter Lundgren, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Georg Mayer, Gesine Meissner, Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar, Renaud Muselier, Markus Pieper, Tomasz Piotr Poręba, Gabriele Preuß, Christine Revault d’Allonnes Bonnefoy, Dominique Riquet, Massimiliano Salini, David-Maria Sassoli, Claudia Țapardel, Keith Taylor, Pavel Telička, Marita Ulvskog, Wim van de Camp, Marie-Pierre Vieu, Roberts Zīle, Kosma Złotowski
Substitutes present for the final vote	Rosa D’Amato, Michael Gahler, Maria Grapini, Karoline Graswander-Hainz, Peter Kouroumbashev, Marek Plura, Evžen Tošenovský
Substitutes under Rule 200(2) present for the final vote	Pascal Durand, Andrey Novakov, Sergei Stanishev, Mylène Troszczynski
Date tabled	10.1.2019

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

46	+
ALDE	Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, Gesine Meissner, Dominique Riquet, Pavel Telička
ECR	Tomasz Piotr Poręba, Evžen Tošenovský, Roberts Zīle, Kosma Złotowski
EFDD	Daniela Aiuto, Rosa D'Amato
ENF	Georg Mayer, Mylène Troszczynski
GUE/NGL	Tania González Peñas, Merja Kyllönen, Marie-Pierre Vieu
PPE	Georges Bach, Wim van de Camp, Deirdre Clune, Andor Deli, Michael Gahler, Luis de Grandes Pascual, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Innocenzo Leontini, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar, Renaud Muselier, Andrey Novakov, Markus Pieper, Marek Plura, Massimiliano Salini
S&D	Lucy Anderson, Inés Ayala Sender, Isabella De Monte, Ismail Ertug, Maria Grapini, Karoline Graswander-Hainz, Peter Kouroumbashev, Gabriele Preuß, Christine Revault d'Allonnes Bonnefoy, David-Maria Sassoli, Sergei Stanishev, Claudia Țapardel, Marita Ulvskog
VERTS/ALE	Michael Cramer, Pascal Durand, Keith Taylor

0	-

2	0
ECR	Jacqueline Foster, Peter Lundgren

Key to symbols:

+  :  in favour

-  :  against

0  :  abstention