The European Parliament adopted by 593 votes to 3, with 28 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2009/16/EC on port State control.

The position adopted by the European Parliament at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure is as follows:

Scope

The amended text stipulated that when inspecting a ship flying the flag of a State which is not a party to a Convention, Member States should ensure that the treatment of that ship and its crew is not more favourable than that of a ship flying the flag of a State party to that Convention. Such a ship should be subject to a more detailed inspection in accordance with procedures established by the Paris MOU.

However, a ship flying the flag of a State which is not a party to the CLC 92, the Bunkers Convention, 2001, and the Nairobi Convention is not automatically subject to a more detailed inspection, if the ship has the required certificate from a State which is a party to those conventions and the inspector performing the inspection deems a more detailed inspection unnecessary. This decision and the reasons therefore should be recorded in the inspection database.

Fishing vessels of less than 24 meters in length, warships, naval auxiliaries, wooden ships of a primitive build, government ships used for non-commercial purposes and pleasure yachts not engaged in trade should be excluded from the scope of this Directive. For the purposes of this Directive, a fishing vessel’s length should be defined in accordance with the Cape Town Agreement.

Modalities allowing a balanced inspection share within the Union

A Member State in which the total number of calls of Priority I ships exceeds its inspection share should be regarded as complying with such commitment, if a number of inspections carried out by that Member State corresponds at least to such an inspection share and if that Member State does not miss more than 40 % of the total number of Priority I ships calling at its ports and anchorages.

Postponing inspections and exceptional circumstances

A Member State may decide to postpone the inspection of a Priority I or Priority II ship in the following circumstances:

- if the inspection may be carried out at any subsequent call of the ship in the same Member State, provided that the ship does not call at any other port in the Union or the Paris MOU region in between, except any ports of the ship’s flag State, and the postponement is not more than 15 days from the actual time of departure; or

- if the inspection may be carried out in another port of call within the Union or the Paris MOU region within 15 days from the actual time of departure.

If an inspection is not performed on a ship at anchorage, it should not be counted as a missed inspection if :

- the ship is inspected in another port or anchorage within the Union or the Paris MOU region in accordance with Annex I within 15 days; or

- the ship call takes place only during night time or its duration is too short for the inspection to be carried out satisfactorily, and the reason for missing the inspection is recorded in the inspection database; or

- in the judgement of the competent authority, the conduct of the inspection would create a risk to the safety of inspectors, the ship, its crew or to the port, or to the marine environment, and the reason for missing the inspection is recorded in the inspection database.

If an inspection is not performed due to extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances rendering the carrying out of an inspection impossible, such as natural disasters, pandemics or public health emergencies or terrorist attacks, it should not be counted as a missed inspection. Those circumstances should be duly justified and reported to the Commission.

Expanded inspections

The following categories of ships are eligible for an expanded inspection:

- ships with a high risk profile;

- passenger ships, oil tankers, gas, noxious liquid substances (NLS) or chemical tankers or bulk carriers, older than 12 years of age;

- ships with a high risk profile or passenger ships, oil tankers, gas, NLS or chemical tankers or bulk carriers, older than 12 years of age, in cases of overriding or unexpected factors;

- ships subject to the inspection following a refusal of access order.

Measures to refuse access to certain vessels

A ship flying the flag of a State that appears on the high performance list and which is detained in a port or anchorage of the Union at the time of its first inspection in the Union after the third or any subsequent refusal of access, should:

- be refused to access any Union port or anchorage for a period of 24 months , if the statutory and classification certificates of the ship are issued by an organisation or organisations recognised under Regulation (EC) No 391/2009;

- be permanently refused access to any Union port or anchorage if the statutory or classification certificates of the ship are not issued by an organisation or organisations recognised under Regulation (EC) No 391/2009.

Refusal of access periods for multiple detentions will be extended by 12 months in certain cases.

The owner or operator of a ship or their representative in the Member State should have a right of appeal against any detention or refusal of access by the competent authority. An appeal should not cause the detention or refusal of access to be suspended.

The Commission should, by five years from the date of transposition of this amending Directive, submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of, and compliance with, this Directive. The following evaluation should take place five years after the first.

The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted the report by Vera TAX (S&D, NL) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2009/16/EC on port State control.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Scope

The report clarified that until such time as a mandatory port State control regime for fishing vessels applies throughout the Union, as a result of the entry into force of the Cape Town Agreement and the amendment of the relevant Union legal acts, individual Member States may carry out port state control inspections of fishing vessels of above 24 metres length overall.

Complaints

The amended text stated that Member States should inform the flag State administration, with a copy to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), of complaints not manifestly unfounded and of follow-up actions taken. The Agency should be invited by Member States, in line with the EMSA regulation, to provide operational and technical support concerning safety investigations.

Refusal of access

The refusal of access order should be lifted after a period of 12 months has elapsed on condition that the owner or operator provides evidence to the satisfaction of the competent authority of the Member State where the ship was found defective, demonstrating that the ship fully complies with all applicable requirements of the Conventions.

ESMA’s involvement

In cooperation with Member States, the Commission should:

- ensure adequate support for the harmonisation of port State control practices across the Union, reporting to the European Parliament and the Council every 4 years on the level of harmonisation and standards of the inspections;

- develop a professional development and training programme for port State control inspectors. The Commission should build on the expertise of EMSA and support its activity, as the trainings it proposes contribute to the harmonisation of port State control officers’ practices;

- on a continuous basis, identify and provide new training needs to amend the curricula, syllabi and content of the professional development and training programme for inspectors, especially as regards new technologies and in relation to the additional obligations arising from the relevant instruments in order to facilitate compliance with environmental, social, public health and labour law standards and safety on-board ships calling at Union ports for both seafarers and dock workers, with a special focus on female workers.

Moreover, the Commission, with the involvement of EMSA, should produce a guidance document offering advice on how to implement international Conventions, in particular the MLC 2006, with regard to port State control. EMSA should also provide detailed information about the most frequent problems detected during port State inspections of ships under each flag.

Inspection database

Members stated that electronic certificates should be mandatory for all Members States as early as possible after the entry into force of this amending directive and in any case no later than three years thereafter. Ships flying the flag of a State that issue such electronic certificates should have this reflected in the ship risk profile (SRP) as set out in Annexes I and II until the electronic certificate becomes compulsory.

Publication of information

According to the report, the Commission should make available and maintain on a public website the information on inspections, detentions and refusals of access. Information identifying an individual ship should only be made publicly available if all legal proceedings are finalised and there is no appeal.

Review

Lastly, Members considered that the Commission should, by five years from the date of entry into force of this amending Directive, submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the progress by Member States on the ratification of international agreements containing obligations related to fisheries as well as assessing how these obligations should be transposed into Union law and, where appropriate, present a legislative proposal to this effect.

PURPOSE: to update certain provisions of Directive 2009/16/EC on port State control.

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: Directive 2009/16/EC regulates port State control inspections at EU level. Port State control (PSC) is a system of inspection of foreign ships in ports of states other than the flag state by PSC officers to verify that the competency of the master, officers and crew on board, the condition of a ship, and its equipment comply with the requirements of international conventions – and in the European Union, with applicable EU law.

Since the Directive 2009/16/EC entered into force, there have been changes in the international regulatory environment (in particular in the Paris MOU and the International Maritime Organisation) and technological developments. Those changes as well as the experience gained from implementation of Directive 2009/16/EC should be taken into account.

This initiative is part of a package to modernise EU rules on maritime safety.

CONTENT: in the light of this, the Commission has prepared a proposal to amend Directive 2009/16/EC. It aims to update and align EU legislation with international rules and procedures , set by the IMO/ILO or the Paris MOU.

Purpose, definition and scope

The scope of the Directive is partially extended to bring a number of international conventions within the scope of port State control inspections. These are the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) and the International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (Nairobi) both of which are in force and have been adopted as relevant instruments by the Paris MOU.

The scope is also amended so that fishing vessels of above 24 metres in length can be inspected under PSC by those Member States who wish to carry out these inspections. A voluntary system of control for this type of vessel should increase the level of compliance with international standards of safety and environmental protection applicable to these vessels.

Ship risk profile

The proposal also updates the way in which ships are targeted for inspection to take account of the new requirements and will attach greater importance to the environmental performance and deficiencies of ships in determining their risk profile. The proposal defines the environmental parameters that will be taken into account to establish the ship risk profile used to target ships for inspection.

Force majeure situations

The proposal addresses the issue of lack of flexibility of the PSC regime in cases of crisis or unexpected events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to make the regime more resilient, a more flexible measure is introduced allowing Member States to miss inspections in cases of force majeure, provided that the missed inspection is recorded and the reason for missing the inspection is documented.

Pre-arrival notification

The amendments intend to align the Directive to the Paris MOU changes abolishing the 72-hour reporting obligation for vessels eligible for an expanded inspection.

Expanded inspections

Due to their complexity, it is proposed that expanded inspections should be carried out by more than one port State control officer.

Refusal of access

The Directive is amended to align it to the changes adopted by the Paris MOU relating to the refusal of access (banning) procedure and the possibility to ban vessels which are on the grey or white lists of the Paris MOU (flag-blind banning) as well as provision related to jumped detention or when the detained vessel does not proceed to an agreed repair yard.

EMSA training

The proposal sets out the possibilities for EMSA to provide training to the EU Member States to better fulfil their responsibilities under the Directive, given the widened scope of PSC and improvements in the scope and type of training. A new professional development and training programme for inspectors should be developed, to be a made up of a (i) syllabus of competence and a (ii) professional development scheme. Once these aspects are in place, the Agency should identify and provide new training needs to amend the curricula, syllabi and content of the professional development and training program for inspectors, especially as regards new technologies and in relation to the additional obligations arising from new IMO conventions.

Electronic certificates

The use of electronic certificates should be encouraged. These would rely on a common template, use a common validation tool and repository at EU level, which would link the use of electronic certificates with the ship risk profile.

Implementation review

The proposal provides that the Commission will produce a review of the implementation of the amended Directive 10 years after adoption. This takes account of the time necessary for transposition and the fact that an EMSA review cycle of visits to Member States typically takes no less than 5 years.

Budgetary implications

The proposal gives raise to net present costs for the Union Budget of EUR 6.479 million over the period 2025-2050.