1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 1
This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents
►B COUNCILDIRECTIVE98/41/EC
of18June1998
on the registration of persons sailing on board passenger ships operating to or from ports of the
Member StatesoftheCommunity
(OJ L 188, 2.7.1998, p. 35)
Amended by:
Official Journal
No page date
►M1Directive 2002/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of
5 November 2002L 324 53 29.11.2002
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COUNCILDIRECTIVE98/41/EC
of18June1998
on the registration of persons sailing on board passenger ships
operatingtoorfromportsoftheMemberStatesoftheCommunity
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, andin particular Article 84(2) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (
1),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (2),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189c of
the Treaty (3),
(1)Whereas within the framework of the common transport policyfurther measures must be taken to enhance safety in maritime
transport;
(2)Whereas the Community is seriously concerned by shipping
accidents involving passenger ships which have resulted inmassive loss of life, particularly those involving the Herald of
Free Enterprise and the Estonia; whereas persons using
passenger ships and high-speed passenger craft throughout theCommunity have the right to expect and to be able to rely onan appropriate level of safety and upon an adequate informationsystem which will facilitate search and rescue and the efficienthandling of the aftermath of any accident that might occur;
(3)Whereas it is necessary to ensure that the number of passengerson board a passenger ship does not exceed the number for whichthe shipand its safety equip ment have been certified; whereascompanies should be able to inform the search and rescueservices of the number of persons involved in an accident;
(4)Whereas information must be compiled on passengers and crewin order to facilitate search and rescue and the efficient handlingof the aftermath of an accident, i.e. identifying the personsinvolved, providing clearer information on related legal issuesand contributing to more appropriate medical care for rescued
persons; whereas such information would prevent unnecessary
anxiety on the part of relatives and other persons concernedregarding persons on board passenger ships involved in marineaccidents in waters for which Member States bear responsibilityunder the 1979 International Convention on Maritime Search and
Rescue (SAR);
(5)Whereas passengers should therefore be counted and registered
before any shipdep arts;
(6)Whereas Chapter III of the International Convention on the
Safety of Life at Sea (the SOLAS Convention) provides for the
counting and registration of all persons on board all passengerships sailing on international voyages, from 1 July 1997 and 1January 1999 respectively, while permitting Administrations toexempt passenger ships sailing in sheltered waters from thoserequirements and from the requirement to register if the sched-
uled voyages of such ships render it impracticable for them to
prepare such records; whereas that Chapter of the SOLASConvention does not apply to domestic voyages and leaves1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 2
(1) OJ C 31, 31. 1. 1997, p. 5 and OJ C 275, 11. 9. 1997, p. 7.
(2) OJ C 206, 7. 7. 1997, p. 111.
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 29 May 1997 (OJ C 138, 16. 6.
1998, p. 31), Council common position of 11 December 1997 (OJ C 23,
23. 1. 1998, p. 17), and Decision of the European Parliament of 11 March
1998 (OJ C 104, 6. 4. 1998).
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important points of interpretation to the discretion of individual
Member States;
(7)Whereas this Directive is in accordance with the right ofMember States to impose on passenger ships sailing to or from
their ports certain requirements more stringent than those laid
down in the SOLAS Convention;
(8)Whereas in view, in particular, of the internal-market dimensionof maritime passenger transport, action at Community level isthe most effective way of establishing a common minimum levelof safety for ships throughout the Community;
(9)Whereas, in view of the principle of proportionality a CouncilDirective is the appropriate legal instrument as it provides a
framework for the Member States' uniform and compulsory
application of safety standards while leaving each Member Statethe right to decide which implementation tools best fit itsinternal system;
(10)Whereas a Member State can ensure compliance with the safetyrules applicable on the part of passenger ships flying its flag andthe companies that operate them; whereas those rules should notbe imposed upon ships operating between ports in third coun-
tries; whereas the provisions of the SOLAS Convention apply
to those voyages;
(11)Whereas the only way of ensuring the safe and efficient handlingof the aftermath of accidents for all passenger ships, irrespectiveof their flags, operating or wishing to operate from their ports, isfor the Member States to require effective compliance with therelevant rules as a condition of operating from their ports;
whereas the granting of exemptions from those rules cannot be
left solely to the flag State since only the port State is in a posi-tion to determine the requirements for the best possible searchand rescue operations for passenger ships sailing to and from aport;
(12)Whereas in order to harmonise safety protection and avoiddistortions of competition, Member States should not, for
reasons other than those mentioned in this Directive, grant
exemptions or derogations from the relevant SOLAS provisionson ‘information on passengers’ for voyages starting from orarriving at Community ports;
(13)Whereas for reasons of practicability and to avoid distortion ofcompetition, a uniform approach must be established to deter-mine the voyages for which the registration of all persons on
board should be mandatory; whereas the twenty-mile threshold
is the result of taking into consideration general principles andspecific points of concern endorsed by all Member States;
(14)Whereas, for specific operational reasons, the counting ofpersons on board passenger ships crossing the Strait of Messinamight, for a limited period of time, be done in a simpler waythan individual counting; whereas Member States should enjoy
the possibility of granting some relaxation from the obligation
to communicate to the shore the number of persons in the caseof passenger ships operating on regular services of short durationcarried out exclusively in protected sea areas, as defined in thisDirective; whereas passenger ships operating exclusively in
protected sea areas constitute a more limited risk and should,
therefore, enjoy the possibility of exemption; whereas in certainspecific circumstances it may be impracticable for shippingcompanies to register persons on board and therefore a deroga-tion from the obligation to register could be permitted underspecific circumstances and well defined conditions;1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 3
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(15)Whereas the collection and processing of data concerning named
individuals must be carried out in accordance with the principles
of data protection laid down in Directive 95/46/EC (1); whereas,
in particular, individuals should be fully informed at the time ofcollection of the purposes for which the data are required, andthe data should be retained only for a very short period whichshould not in any case be any longer than necessary for the
purposes of this Directive;
(16)Whereas it is necessary that a committee consisting of represen-
tatives of the Member States assist the Commission in theeffective application of this Directive; whereas the committeeset upby Article 12 of Directive 93/75/EEC (
2) can assume that
function;
(17)Whereas certain provisions of this Directive may be adapted by
that Committee to take into account future amendments to theSOLAS Convention that have entered into force,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Article 1
The purpose of this Directive shall be to enhance the safety and possi-
bilities of rescue of passengers and crew on board passenger ships
operating to or from ports in Member States of the Community and toensure that search and rescue and the aftermath of any accident whichmay occur can be dealt with more effectively.
Article 2
For the purposes of this Directive:
— ‘persons’ shall mean all people on board irrespective of age,
— ‘passenger ship’ shall mean a sea-going ship or a sea-going high-
speed craft which carries more than twelve passengers,
— ‘high-speed craft’ shall mean a high-speed craft as defined in Regu-
lation 1 of Chapter X of the 1974 SOLAS Convention, ►
M1in its
up-to-date version ◄,
— ‘company’ shall mean the owner of a passenger ship or any other
organisation or person such as the manager or the bareboat char-terer, who has assumed responsibility for operating the passengershipfrom the owner,
— ‘ISM Code’ shall mean the International Management Code for the
Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention adopted bythe International Maritime Organization (IMO) through Assembly
Resolution A.741(18) of 4 November 1993,
— ‘passenger registrar’ shall mean the responsible shore-based person
designated by a company to fulfil the ISM Code obligations or ashore-based person designated by a company as responsible for the
keeping of information on persons who have embarked on a
company passenger ship,
— ‘designated authority’ shall mean the competent authority of the
Member State responsible for search and rescue or concerned with
the aftermath of an accident,
— ‘a mile’ is 1 852 metres,
— ‘protected sea area’ shall mean a sea area sheltered from open sea
effects where a shipis at no time more than six miles from a p laceof refuge where shipwrecked persons can land and in which theproximity of search and rescue facilities is ensured,
— ‘regular service’ shall mean a series of shipcrossings op erated so as
to serve traffic between the same two or more ports, either:
(a) according to a published timetable, or1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 4
(1) OJ L 281, 23. 11. 1995, p. 31.
(2) OJ L 247, 5. 10. 1993, p. 19.
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(b) with crossings so regular or frequent that they constitute a
recognizable systematic series,
— ‘third country’ shall mean any country which is not a Member
State.
Article 3
This Directive shall apply to passenger ships with the exception of:
— ships of war and troop ships, and
— pleasure yachts unless they are or will be crewed and carry more
than twelve passengers for commercial purposes.
Article 4
1. All persons on board any passenger ship which departs from a
port located in a Member State shall be counted before that passenger
shipdep arts.
2. Before the passenger ship departs the number of persons on board
shall be communicated to the master of the passenger ship and to the
company's passenger registrar or to a shore-based company system thatperforms the same function.
Article 5
1. The following information shall be recorded regarding every
passenger ship that departs from a port located in a Member State toundertake a voyage of more than twenty miles from the point of depar-
ture:
— the family names of the persons on board,
— their forenames or initials,
— their sex,
— an indication of the category of age (adult, child or infant) to which
each person belongs, or the age, or the year of birth,
— when volunteered by a passenger, information concerning the need
for special care or assistance in emergency situations.
2. That information shall be collected before departure and commu-
nicated not later than thirty minutes after the passenger ship's departureto the company's passenger registrar or to a shore-based companysystem that performs the same function.
Article 6
1. Each Member State shall, as regards every passenger ship that
flies its flag and departs from a port located outwith the Community
and is bound for a port located within the Community, require thecompany to ensure that the information specified in Articles 4(1) and5(1) is provided as laid down in Articles 4(2) and 5(2).
2. Each Member State shall, as regards every passenger ship that
flies the flag of a third country and departs from a port located outwiththe Community and is bound for a port located within the Community,require the company to ensure that the information specified in Articles
4(1) and 5(1) is collected and maintained so that it is available to the
designated authority when needed for purposes of search and rescueand in the aftermath of an accident.
3. Where under the relevant SOLAS provisions a Member State
grants an exemption or derogation relating to the information
concerning passengers to a ship flying its flag arriving at a port locatedwithin the Community from a port located outwith the Community, itmay do so only under the conditions laid down for exemptions or dero-gations in this Directive.1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 5
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Article 7
Before a passenger ship departs from a port located in a Member State
its master shall ensure that the number of persons on board does notexceed the number the passenger ship is permitted to carry.
Article 8
Each company assuming responsibility for operating a passenger ship
shall, where required under Articles 4 and 5:
— set upa system for the registration of p assenger information. The
system shall meet the criteria laid down in Article 11,
— appoint a passenger registrar responsible for the keeping and the
transmission of that information should an emergency occur or in
the aftermath of an accident.
The company shall ensure that the information required by this Direc-
tive is at all times readily available for transmission to the designated
authority for search and rescue purposes in the event of an emergencyor in the aftermath of an accident.
Personal data collected in accordance with Article 5 shall not be kept
longer than necessary for the purposes of this Directive.
The company shall ensure that information concerning persons who
have declared a need for special care or assistance in emergency situa-tions is properly recorded and communicated to the master before thepassenger ship departs.
Article 9
1. A Member State from a port in which a passenger ship departs
may lower the twenty-mile threshold laid down in Article 5.
Any decision lowering that threshold for journeys between two ports in
different Member States shall be taken jointly by those two MemberStates.
2. (a) When implementing Article 4(1) the Italian Republic may, for
regular services crossing the Strait of Messina, adopt provisions
for counting the maximum number of persons permitted to becarried on board a passenger ship carrying passenger-traincarriages and road vehicles on the basis of the maximumnumber of passengers authorised to be carried by train carriagesand all other vehicles on board, if the persons cannot be counted
individually for operational reasons. The application of this
provision shall be limited to a period of four years. Any exten-sion shall be decided, in accordance with paragraph 3, in thelight of the experience gained.
(b) A Member State from a port in which a ship departs may
exempt passenger ships operating, exclusively in protected sea
areas, regular services of less than one hour between port callsfrom the obligation laid down in Article 4(2) to communicatethe number of persons on board to the passenger registrar or toa shore-based company system that performs the same function.
(c) A Member State may exempt passenger ships sailing, exclu-
sively in protected sea areas, between two ports or from and tothe same port without intermediate calls from the obligationslaid down in Article 5.
3. In the circumstances set out in paragraph 2, the following proce-
dure shall apply:
(a) the Member State shall without delay inform the Commission of its
decision to grant an exemption or a derogation from the relevantprovisions of Articles 4 and 5 giving substantive reasons therefor;
(b) if within six months of such notification the Commission considers
that that decision is not justified or could have adverse effects oncompetition, it may, acting in accordance with the procedure laiddown in Article 13, require the Member State to amend or with-draw its decision.1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 6
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4. For regular services in an area where the annual probability of the
significant wave height's exceeding two metres is less than 10 %, and
— if the voyage does not exceed about thirty miles from the point of
departure or
— where the primary purpose of the service is to provide regular links
to outlying communities for customary purposes,
a Member State from a port in which passenger ships sail on domestic
voyages or two Member States between ports in which passenger ships
sail may request the Commission, if they consider it impracticable forcompanies to record the information specified in Article 5(1) to dero-gate, wholly or partly, from this requirement.
To this end, evidence of such impracticability shall be provided. In
addition, it shall be demonstrated that in the area where such shipsoperate, shore-based navigational guidance and reliable weather fore-
casts are provided and that adequate and sufficient search and rescue
facilities are available. Derogations granted under this paragraph maynot have any adverse effect on competition.
A decision shall be taken in accordance with the procedure laid down
in Article 13.
5. A Member State shall not, under the provisions of this Directive,
exempt or grant derogations to any passenger ship sailing from its portsand flying the flag of a third country that is a contracting party to theSOLAS Convention which under the relevant SOLAS provisions does
not agree to the application of such exemptions.
Article 10
The registration systems set upin accordance with Article 8 shall be
approved by the Member States.
Member States shall at least carry out random checks on the proper
functioning of the registration systems set upp ursuant to this Directive
within their territories.
Each Member State shall designate the authority to which the compa-
nies covered by Article 8 shall communicate the information required
by this Directive.
Article 11
1. For the purposes of this Directive registration systems shall meet
the following functional criteria:
(i)readability:
the required data must be in a format that is easy to read,
(ii)availability:
the required data must be easily available to the designated autho-
rities for which the information contained in the system isrelevant,
(iii)facilitation:
the system must be designed in such a way that no undue delay is
caused for passengers embarking and/or disembarking the vessel;
(iv)security:
the data must be appropriately protected against accidental or
unlawful destruction or loss and unauthorised alteration, disclosureor access.
2. A multiplicity of systems on the same or similar routes is to be
avoided.
Article 12
Without prejudice to the procedures for amending the SOLAS Conven-
tion, this Directive may be amended in accordance with the procedurelaid down in Article 13, in order to ensure the application, for thepurposes of this Directive and without broadening its scope, of subse-quent amendments to the SOLAS Convention relating to the1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 7
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registration systems which have entered into force after the adoption of
this Directive.
The amendments to the international instruments referred to in Article
2 may be excluded from the scope of this Directive, pursuant to Article5 of Regulation (EC) No 2099/2002 of the European Parliament and ofthe Council of 5 November 2002 establishing a Committee on SafeSeas and the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (COSS)(
1).
Article 13
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Committee on Safe Seas
and the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (COSS) created by Article3 of Regulation (EC) No 2099/2002.
2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of
Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the proce-
dures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on theCommission (
2) hall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article
8 thereof.
The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be
set at two months.
3. The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.
Article 14
Member States shall lay down systems of penalties for breaching the
national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive and shall take
all the measures necessary to ensure that those penalties are applied.The penalties thus provided for shall be effective, proportionate anddissuasive.
Article 15
1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and
administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 1January 1999. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
Article 5 shall be applied no later than 1 January 2000.
2. When the Member States adopt those measures, they shall contain
references to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such referenceson the occasion of their official publication. The methods of makingsuch references shall be laid down by the Member States.
3. The Member States shall immediately communicate to the
Commission the texts of all provisions of national law which they
adopt in the field governed by this Directive. The Commission shall
inform the other Member States thereof.
Article 16
This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day after its publi-
cation.
Article 17
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.1998L0041 — EN — 29.11.2002 — 001.001 — 8
(1) OJ L 324, 29.11.2002, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.▼M1
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