Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2009)11 - Ing formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States of the EC - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2009)11 - Ing formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States of the EC. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2009)11  |
| date | 21-01-2009 |
Grounds for and objectives of the proposal This proposal for a directive on reporting formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of Member States of the Community helps make reality the concept of a European maritime transport space without barriers, as described in the Commission’s communication COM(2009) 10, which is adopted jointly with this proposal. The objective of this concept is to remove or simplify the documentary and physical checks conducted on ships and goods moving between ports situated in the European Union. This proposal is designed to replace Directive 2002/6/EC i of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 February 2002 in order to meet the following needs: 1. Review of the FAL Convention and consistency with other Community legislative acts The IMO (International Maritime Organisation)’s FAL Convention facilitates and harmonises at global level the administrative formalities to which ships entering or leaving ports are subject. It was signed on 9 April 1965 and came into force on 5 March 1967. Several European Union Member States have signed and ratified the Convention since it came into force. On 18 February 2002, the European Union adopted Directive 2002/6/EC, under which Member States are required to use a series of forms standardised by the FAL Convention. Since 2002, Community legislation has been supplemented by new legislation in the field of safety and security. The formalities in question are those required under the basic directives or amendments to Council Directive 95/21/EC of 19 June 1995 (‘port State control’), Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system, Regulation (EC) No 725/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on enhancing ship and port facility security, which impose formalities in their respective areas, and Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 (Schengen Borders Code). The FAL Convention was reviewed during the 32nd session of the IMO’s FAL Committee in July 2005 in order to extend the number of formalities covered. The July 2005 revision of the FAL Convention added one field to the General Declaration (form No 1) regarding the processing of waste. In accordance with the requirements of Directive 2000/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2000 on port reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues, waste and residue on board must, in the case of European ports, be declared. The links between these two legislative acts must therefore be specified. The changes to Community legislation and the FAL Convention are causing greater administrative complexity in the field of maritime transport; this complexity should be reduced but at the same time any reduction in maritime safety, maritime security and environmental protection also needs to be avoided. Nevertheless, the delegations from the EU Member States to the FAL Committee meetings will have to make an effort to ensure that the forms required under the FAL Convention and those required under existing Community legislation are in alignment. The July 2005 revision of the FAL Convention amended the IMO General Declaration, Ship’s Stores Declaration, Crew’s Effects Declaration, Crew List and Passenger List, as well as the corresponding recommended practices and standards. The Commission takes the view that, until this Directive comes into force, the parallel use of forms reproduced by the IMO on the basis of the IMO Convention amended in July 2005 should be regarded by the relevant port authorities as complying with the provisions of Directive 2002/6/EC currently in force. 2. New security information form to be provided prior to entry into a port in a Member State Regulation (EC) No 725/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on enhancing ship and port facility security requires the relevant maritime safety authorities in the Member States to require information to be provided if a ship announces its intention to enter a port situated within its territory. The Commission has provided the maritime security committee established under that Regulation (the ‘MARSEC committee’) with a draft form designed to ensure harmonisation of information requests. The committee approved this harmonised draft information form at its fifth meeting on 20 March 2005, noting that the Member States could request more (or less) information on a case-by-case basis. The Commission felt that information relating to security should be notified using a harmonised form adopted at international level by the IMO's FAL Committee and therefore began the process of having the form approved by the Committee, where technical discussions are still underway, given that committee meetings are very infrequent. Until the adoption of a harmonised form of this type at international level, the Commission is proposing as an interim measure the form approved by the MARSEC committee (Annex III to this proposal). Once the FAL committee has adopted the international harmonised form, the Commission could, with the assistance of the MARSEC committee, introduce the international harmonised form as the single basis for security information requests by Member States, in accordance with the procedure for amending annexes as stipulated in Article 9 of the proposal for a directive. 3. Insufficient information and duplication of authorities in ports Even now, fax machines are still used in over half of ports in order to exchange information, whilst electronic systems for the exchange of data which could be used by all operators in the port community are only present in a small number of major ports or Member States. This results in an increase in repetitive work and a potential cause of slowness or errors which could be eliminated if the use of electronic data transmission systems was more widespread. Under Decision No 70/2008/EC on a paperless environment for customs and trade, the European Parliament and the Council have already established the procedure to be followed and a timetable for the transmission of data needed for customs operations. It is important that the systems available to operators for non-customs reporting formalities can develop rapidly and consistently with customs systems. 4. Inconsistent application of Directive 2002/6/EC Furthermore, a study of 40 ports carried out by the European Maritime Safety Agency showed that although Directive 2002/6/EC was generally well implemented by the Member States, the Directive did not always enable the intended objective of simplification to be achieved. Forms were sometimes requested by several different authorities, or information previously requested had not always been deleted; as a result, Directive 2002/6/EC introduced formalities which were additional to those which should be replaced. Furthermore, a number of ports still use forms printed in the national language, which sometimes include extra sections.
AZ General background In its Communication [COM(2006) 380] to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 13 July 2006 on the mid-term review of the programme for the promotion of short sea shipping, the Commission, in response to reactions from the Member States and industry, confirmed that the use of FAL forms had an important role in promoting short sea shipping and announced that it would update it to ensure alignment with recent IMO decisions.
Existing provisions in the area of the proposal The purpose behind Directive 2002/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on reporting formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States of the Community was to simplify and harmonise administrative formalities and documents by putting in place uniform documentary procedures modelled on the International Maritime Organisation’s FAL forms.
Alignment with other Community policies This proposal helps to ensure that the objectives of the Lisbon Agenda can be met, in so far as it aims to simplify administrative procedures and to use information and communication technology to increase efficiency.
Contents
Consultation of stakeholders
Stakeholders were consulted via the Internet, by means of presentations of preparatory work at forums and to groups of national experts, and two specialised seminars.
This consultation enabled the opinions of the various public- and private-sector stakeholders to be obtained. The contributions have revealed a relatively broad consensus on the simplification objectives pursued. Several specific comments were taken into account in the technical provisions of the two resulting legislative proposals.
The Commission has used an outside expert to assess the cost-effectiveness of the proposal.
The consultant assessed the costs and benefits of the options available in order to meet the objective of administrative simplification by conducting a bibliographic study and interviews of ports representative of all EU ports.
The main organisations consulted were members of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), and the European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) and representatives from the relevant public services (in particular, customs and port authorities).
The consultation did not indicate that the proposal entailed much risk.
A summary of responses to the consultation has been posted on Europa, the Commission’s Internet site.
Impact assessment The following options were considered in the impact assessment: Option A: no measure being taken at Community level; Option B: given that checks conducted on goods circulating within the internal market are derived from various pieces of legislation, each of them being the subject of simplification on a case-by-case basis; Option C: a series of coherent measures being adopted in order to eliminate administrative obstacles to the free movement of Community goods or similar between EU ports.
The impact assessment report is a public document available on Europa, the Commission’s Internet site.
Summary of the proposed measures In order to meet these objectives, this proposal for a directive aims to reduce the amount of information to be repeatedly provided to the various port authorities. To this end, it is felt that the transmission of information as provided for in Directives 95/21/EC, 2002/59/EC and 2000/59/EC and Regulation (EC) No 725/2004 and, if necessary, the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, contain all navigation information required by the authorities upon arrival at and/or departure from ports. Some of this information has already been sent electronically via SafeSeaNet, the Community maritime data exchange system. The international regulatory authorities, such as the International Maritime Organisation or the World Customs Organisation, have developed formats for the electronic transmission of FAL forms. These forms provide port authorities with sufficient information on ships from third countries. The FAL forms are not required for ships coming from a European Union port. All information required under this Directive should be sent electronically to a single competent authority nominated by the Member States, via the SafeSeaNet system, as soon as possible and by 15 February 2013 at the latest; this is the date on which the provisions of Decision No 70/2008/EC on a paperless environment for customs and trade are to enter into force. This proposal includes a correlation table showing the FAL forms and the information required under the legislation referred to above, as well as a new maritime safety form. The proposal for a directive provides that Member States have one year in which to transpose its provisions into national law.
Legal basis Article 80 i of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
Subsidiarity principle The removal of obstacles to the free movement of goods transported by sea requires amendments to be made to procedures arising from the implementation of Community acts and resulting in two types of formalities (those relating to ships and those necessary for the operation of the ships and those relating to the goods transported). These are the subject of separate legislative proposals.
Principle of proportionality The form of action proposed gives Member States a certain amount of freedom when imposing performance objectives, although the methods for doing so are not specified.
The option chosen is that which is the most cost-effective in global terms for the parties concerned.
The measure implemented is a proposal for a directive designed to replace Directive 2002/6/EC, currently in force.
The proposal has no budgetary impact.
Simplification
The national authorities will have less checks to carry out. The use of computerised communication methods will enable checks not covered by the proposal to be better organised, whilst improving their efficiency.
The proposals will considerably reduce the cost and duration of time in port and will be beneficial to maritime transport, thus contributing to an adjustment in the balance between the various modes of transport.
Detailed explanation of the proposal, article by article The objectives of the articles and annexes to the proposal for a directive are as follows: The objective of Article 1 is to: indicate the subject-matter of the Directive, which will cover the standardisation of administrative formalities, administrative simplification and the electronic transmission of documents; Article 2: to specify the scope of the Directive, which covers the administrative formalities for ships entering and/or exiting European Union ports; Article 3: to provide essential definitions for the purposes of the Directive; Article 4: to establish a 24-hour deadline by which the information required must be sent; this is in compliance with the deadlines stipulated in Directive 2002/59/EC and Regulation (EC) No 725/2004; Article 5: to require information required under the Community Directives, if they exist, to be sent in accordance with the provisions provided under these Directives. If no directive is applicable, the information sent pursuant to the FAL Convention must be accepted; Article 6: to require Member States to appoint a single competent authority at national level for the collation of information required at entry to and/or exit from European Union ports, which shall be the authority designated for the implementation of SafeSeaNet; Article 7: to make the use of electronic means of transmission commonplace as soon as possible and by 13 February 2013 at the latest (this being the date given in Decision 70/2008/EC on a paperless environment for customs and trade); Article 8: to exempt those moving between ports situated within the European Community's customs territory from sending FAL forms, provided that the goods are presumed to have Community status; Articles 9 and 10: to include provisions on procedure and comitology currently in force; Article 11: to establish the means for transposing the directive by those Member States with a transposition deadline of one year as from the publication of the Directive; Article 12: to repeal Directive 2002/6/EC one year from the publication of the Directive; Article 13: to set the date of entry into force of the Directive as 20 days after its publication; Article 14: to address the Directive to the Member States; Annex I: to provide a list of the FAL forms adopted by the International Maritime Organisation; Annex II: to set out the main definitions provided in the FAL Convention and provide equivalences between the FAL forms and those issued under existing Community legislation; Annex III: to introduce a new sheet for maritime safety, until the adoption of the relevant form by the International Maritime Organisation.