Høring om EU-regelverket for sikkerhet maritim transport

Høring om EU-regelverket for sikkerhet maritim transport

Public consultation on the fitness of EU legislation for maritime transport safety and efficiency

Felles EØS/EFTA-kommentar sendt til EU 6.1.2017

Nærmere omtale

BAKGRUNN (fra Kommisjonens høringsnettside)

Consultation period

This consultation will last for 12 weeks. Questionnaires should be returned by 8 January 2017 at the very latest.
Target group

All citizens and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation.

The consultation can be of particular interest to passengers travelling by sea, national maritime authorities, shipowners, port and terminal operators, seafarers and their organisations, trade unions, maritime related European associations, third country Flag States, classification societies and other actors involved in maritime transport such as ships agents, pilots, VTS operators, etc.
Introduction

The EU has one of the world's strictest regimes regarding maritime safety in and around EU waters covering the whole chain of responsibility. Amongst others, key parts of the EU Maritime Safety Framework are:

Directive 2009/21/EC on compliance with flag State requirements

Directive 2009/18/EC establishing the fundamental principles governing the investigation of accidents in the maritime transport sector,

Directive 2009/16/EC on port State control

Directive 2002/59/EC on vessel traffic monitoring and information system

Directive 2008/106/EC on the minimum level of training of seafarers and Directive 2005/45/EC on the mutual recognition of seafarers

In addition there is EU legislation to promote the performance of maritime transport through simplification and streamlining of reporting formalities – Directive 2010/65/EU on reporting formalities – with a view to achieve a European Maritime Transport Space without Barriers, a concept which extends the Internal Market to intra-EU maritime transport. Underpinning both objectives is the Union Maritime Information and Exchange System, enabling efficient maritime transport and maritime traffic.

Seven years after the adoption of the third maritime safety package and the reporting formalities directive it is timely to reflect on the overall achievements and limitations of these European measures in the broader framework of the mid-term review of the 2009 EU's Maritime Transport Strategy.

Furthermore since 2009, several developments have affected the maritime sector. This has created new challenges for policy makers and market operators including the need to avoid that competition and fewer resources go to the detriment of safety and quality shipping and the essential necessity to boost efficiency through digitalisation and administrative simplification.

The Commission has therefore decided to conduct a Fitness Check of the related EU maritime legislation to identify any excessive burdens, inconsistencies and obsolete or (cost) ineffective measures in the policy area being considered. The individual legislative acts will be evaluated thoroughly. The overall fitness check will be complementary to show the full picture and a more strategic and global view by studying the interaction between the acts and assessing whether overall they allow achieving the above-mentioned objectives in the most cost-efficient way supporting growth and competitiveness.

In parallel to the fitness check, the maritime transport legislation related to the training of seafarers will undergo an evaluation under the Commission's Regulatory Fitness and Performance programme (REFIT) which aims to make EU law simpler, lighter, more efficient and less costly. The REFIT should ensure that the legislative framework is fit for purpose and that the objectives of maritime safety and promotion of seafarers' mobility by facilitating mutual recognition of their certificates are effectively fulfilled considering also the international context.

More information on the fitness check and the individual evaluations can be found in the following documents:

• the roadmap to the fitness check of maritime legislation covering legislation on flag state responsibilities, accident investigation, port state control, the vessel traffic monitoring and information system and, the reporting formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of Member States,

• the roadmap to the Evaluation of Directive 2009/21/EC on compliance with flag State requirements and Directive 2009/18/EC establishing the fundamental principles governing the investigation of accidents in the maritime transport sector,

• the roadmap to the REFIT Evaluation of Directive 2009/16/EC on port State control,

• the roadmap to the REFIT evaluation of Directives 2002/59/EC on Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information System and Directive 2010/65/EU on Reporting Formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States,

• the roadmap to the REFIT Evaluation of Directive 2008/106/EC on minimum level of training of seafarers and Directive 2005/45/EC on mutual recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by Member States.

Objectives of the consultation

This Open Public Consultation has been launched to collect views and opinions on the legislative acts and their implementation and the interaction between them; to gather factual information on what works well and where there is room for improvement; and to collect data and knowledge about the impacts of the various acts individually and taken together.

The questionnaire is built in a way to allow the non-initiated audience to voice their views on the regulatory framework in place and the related limitations and achievements. The results of the public consultation will feed into the Commission's analysis which will also be based on targeted consultations and external studies.

Respondents are welcome to expand on their answers in the text boxes foreseen for this purpose. At the end of the questionnaire, it is also possible to upload supporting documents (e.g. position papers, statistics) to complement the contribution.

Professional stakeholders can express their interest in the questionnaire to be part of the targeted consultations that will be carried out in parallel for the individual evaluations. These targeted consultations will focus on specific technical, legal or regulatory items. They will also serve to collect specific data to support the Commission's analysis.