COMMON POSITION (EC) No 3/98 adopted by the Council on 11 December 1997 with a view to the adopting Council Directive 98/. . ./EC of . . . on the registration of persons sailing on board passenger ships operating to or from ports of the Member States of the Community (98/C 23/03)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in 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 policy further 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 in massive 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 the Community have the right to expect and to be able to rely on an appropriate level of safety and on an adequate information system which will facilitate search and rescue and the efficient handling of the aftermath of any accident that might occur;

(3) Whereas it is necessary to ensure that the number of passengers on board a passenger ship does not exceed the number for which the ship and its safety equipment have been certified; whereas companies should be able to inform the search and rescue services of the number of persons involved in an accident;

(4) Whereas information must be compiled on passengers and crew in order to facilitate search and rescue and the efficient handling of the aftermath of an accident, i.e. identifying the persons involved, providing clearer information on related legal issues and contributing to more appropriate medical care for rescued persons; whereas such information would prevent unnecessary anxiety on the part of relatives and other persons concerned regarding persons on board passenger ships involved in marine accidents in waters for which Member States bear responsibility pursuant to the 1979 International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR);

(5) Whereas passengers should therefore be counted and registered before any ship departs;

(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 passenger ships sailing on international voyages, from 1 July 1997 and 1 January 1999 respectively, while permitting administrations to exempt passenger ships sailing in sheltered waters from those requirements and from the requirement to register if the scheduled voyages of such ships render it impracticable for them to prepare such records; whereas that Chapter of the SOLAS Convention does not apply to domestic voyages and leaves important points of interpretation to the discretion of individual Member States;

(7) Whereas this Directive is in accordance with the right of Member 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 dimension of maritime passenger transport, action at Community level is the most effective way of establishing a common minimum level of safety for ships throughout the Community;

(9) Whereas, in view of the principle of proportionality a Council Directive 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 State the right to decide which implementation tools best fit its internal system;

(10) Whereas a Member State can ensure compliance with the safety rules applicable on the part of passenger ships flying its flag and the companies that operate them; whereas those rules should not be imposed on ships operating between ports in third countries; whereas the provisions of the SOLAS Convention apply to those voyages;

(11) Whereas the only way of ensuring the safe and efficient handling of the aftermath of accidents for all passenger ships, irrespective of their flags, operating or wishing to operate from their ports, is for the Member States to require effective compliance with the relevant 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 position to determine the requirements for the best possible search-and-rescue operations for passenger ships sailing to and from a port;

(12) Whereas in order to harmonise safety protection and avoid distortions of competition, Member States should not, for reasons other than those mentioned in this Directive, grant exemptions or derogations from the relevant SOLAS provisions on 'information on passengers` for voyages starting from or arriving at Community ports;

(13) Whereas for reasons of practicability and to avoid distortion of competition, a uniform approach must be established to determine the voyages for which the registration of all persons on board should be mandatory; whereas the 20 mile threshold is the result of taking into consideration general principles and specific points of concern endorsed by all Member States;

(14) Whereas, for specific operational reasons, the counting of persons on board passenger ships crossing the Straits of Messina might, for a limited period of time, be done in a simpler way than 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 case of passenger ships operating on regular services of short duration carried out exclusively in protected sea areas, as defined in this Directive; whereas passenger ships operating exclusively in protected sea areas constitute a more limited risk and should, therefore, enjoy the possibility of exemption; whereas in certain specific circumstances it may be impracticable for shipping companies to register persons on board and therefore a derogation from the obligation to register could be permitted under specific circumstances and well defined conditions;

(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 (4); whereas, in particular, individuals should be fully informed at the time of collection of the purposes for which the data are required, and the data should be retained only for a very short period which should 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 representatives of the Member States assist the Commission in the effective application of this Directive; whereas the Committee set up by Article 12 of Directive 93/75/EEC (5) can assume that function;

(17) Whereas certain provisions of this Directive may be adapted by that Committee to take into account future amendments to the SOLAS Convention that have entered into force,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

The purpose of this Directive shall be to enhance the safety and possibilities of rescue of passengers and crew on board passenger ships operating to or from ports in Member States of the Community and to ensure that search and rescue and the aftermath of any accident which may 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 seagoing ship or a seagoing high-speed craft which carries more than 12 passengers,

- 'high-speed craft` shall mean a high-speed craft as defined in Regulation 1 of Chapter X of the 1974 SOLAS Convention, as in force at the time of the adoption of this Directive,

- 'company` shall mean the owner of a passenger ship or any other organisation or person such as the manager or the bareboat charterer, who has assumed responsibility for operating the passenger ship from the owner,

- 'ISM Code` shall mean the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (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 a shore-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 ship is at no time more than six miles from a place of refuge where shipwrecked persons can land and in which the proximity of search and rescue facilities is ensured,

- 'regular service` shall mean a series of ship crossings operated so as to serve traffic between the same two or more ports, either:

(a) according to a published timetable or

(b) with crossings so regular or frequent that they constitute a recognisable 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 12 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 ship departs.

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 that performs 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 to undertake a voyage of more than 20 miles from the point of departure:

- 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 communicated not later than 30 minutes after the passenger ship's departure to the company's passenger registrar or to a shore-based company system 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 the company to ensure that the information specified in Articles 4(1) and 5(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 outwith the 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 rescue and 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 located within the Community from a port located outwith the Community, it may do so only under the conditions laid down for exemptions or derogations in this Directive.

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 not exceed the number the passenger ship is permitted to carry.

Article 8

Each company assuming responsibility for operating a passenger ship shall, where required within the meaning of Articles 4 and 5:

- set up a system for the registration of passenger 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 Directive is at all times readily available for transmission to the designated authority for search and rescue purposes in the event of an emergency or 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 situations is properly recorded and communicated to the master before the passenger ship departs.

Article 9

1. A Member State from a port in which a passenger ship departs may lower the 20-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 Member States.

2 (a) When implementing Article 4(1) the Italian Republic may, for regular services crossing the Straits of Messina, adopt provisions for counting the maximum number of persons permitted to be carried on board a passenger ship carrying passenger-train carriages and road vehicles on the basis of the maximum number of passengers authorised to be carried by train carriages and 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 extension shall be decided, in accordance with paragraph 3, in the light 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 calls from the obligation laid down in Article 4(2) to communicate the number of persons on board to the passenger registrar or to a shore-based company system that performs the same function.

(c) A Member State may exempt passenger ships sailing, exclusively in protected sea areas, between two ports, or from and to the same port without intermediate calls from the obligations laid down in Article 5.

3. In the circumstances set out in paragraph 2, the following procedure shall apply:

(a) the Member State shall without delay inform the Commission of its decision to grant an exemption or a derogation from the relevant provisions 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 on competition, it may, acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 13, require the Member State to amend or withdraw its decision.

4. For regular services in an area where the annual probability of the significant wave height exceeding two metres is less than 10 % and

- if the voyage does not exceed about 30 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 for companies to record the information specified in Article 5(1) to derogate, 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 ships operate, shore-based navigational guidance and reliable weather forecasts are provided and that adequate and sufficient search and rescue facilities are available. Derogations granted within the meaning of this paragraph may not 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 ports and flying the flag of a third country that is a contracting party to the SOLAS Convention which under the relevant SOLAS provisions does not agree to the application of such exemptions.

Article 10

The registration systems set up in 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 up pursuant to this Directive within their territories.

Each Member State shall designate the authority to which the companies 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) >TABLE>

(ii) >TABLE>

(iii) >TABLE>

(iv) >TABLE>

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 Convention, this Directive may be amended in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 13, in order to ensure the application, for the purposes of this Directive and without broadening its scope, of subsequent amendments to the SOLAS Convention relating to the registration systems which have entered into force after the adoption of this Directive.

Article 13

The Commission shall be assisted by the committee set up pursuant to Article 12(1) of Directive 93/75/EEC. The committee shall operate in accordance with the procedure laid down in paragraphs 2 and 3 of that Article.

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 and dissuasive.

Article 15

1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 1 January 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 references on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such 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 20th day after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Article 17

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at . . . .

For the Council

The President

(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 182, 16.6.1997, p. 14), Council Common Position of 11 December 1997 and Decision of the European Parliament of . . . (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(4) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.

(5) OJ L 247, 5.10.1993, p. 19.

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

On 26 November 1996, the Commission submitted to the Council a proposal for a Council Directive on the registration of persons sailing on board of passenger ships (1). This proposal was based on Article 84(2) of the EC Treaty.

The Economic and Social Committee issued its opinion on 23 April 1997 (2). The European Parliament issued its opinion in the first reading on 29 May 1997 (3).

The Commission amended its proposal in the light of these opinions and transmitted it to the Council on 23 July 1997 (4).

The Council adopted its common position in accordance with Article 189c of the Treaty on 11 December 1997.

II. PURPOSE OF THE PROPOSAL

The purpose of the Commission proposal is to require companies operating passenger ships in international or domestic voyages to or from ports of the Member States of the Community to count their passengers and their crew before departure and to record, if the voyage is more than 20 miles from the point of departure, their names, sex, category of age and possible information on special care in emergency situations volunteered by the passengers.

The counting would help ensure that the number of persons on board does not exceed the maximum passenger capacity of the ship and would provide the emergency services with information about the number of persons to be rescued in case of an accident. The registration of persons on board would be of help to all services that have to intervene after an accident has happened. Finally, the Directive would help ensure that competition between companies operating on similar shipping routes in not affected.

The idea of making counting and registration of passengers mandatory became more popular after the accident of the 'Herald of Free Enterprise` in 1987 and its value became even more apparent after the accident of the 'Estonia` in 1994. The idea was taken up in point II.2 of the Council resolution of 22 December 1994 on the safety of roll-on/roll-off passenger ferries (5). In 1995, Resolution MSC 47 (66) of the IMO introduced the idea into Regulation III/27 of SOLAS (6).

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

The common position applies to all seagoing passenger ships and high-speed craft which carry more than 12 passengers and which depart from a port located in a Member State or undertake a journey from a third country to a Community port (Articles 1 and 6).

In requires all persons on board to be counted prior to departure (Article 4(1) and Article 6(1) and (2)). However, passengers on board ships crossing the Straits of Messina may be counted under a simplified system, subject to review (Article 9(2)(a)).

Moreover, if the ships undertakes voyages of more than 20 miles, the names, the sex, the age and the possible wishes for special care in emergency situations of all persons on board shall be recorded as well (Article 5(1)). Member States may nevertheless lower the 20-mile threshold (Article 9(1)). They may also exempt ships sailing exclusively in protected sea areas from the obligation to record the passengers (Article 9(2)(c)) or request the Commission for an authorisation to derogate from this obligation for regular services of not more than about 30 miles or for regular services to isolated communities in areas with low average wave heights where adequate navigational guidance, weather forecasts and search and rescue facilities are available (Article 9(4)).

Before departure, the number of persons on board shall be communicated to the master and to the company's registrar or to a shore-based system that performs the same functions (Article 4(2)). The master shall also receive, before departure, information about possible wishes for special care in case of an emergency (Article 8 in fine). However, Member States may exempt passenger ships operating regular services of less than one hour in protected sea areas from the obligation to communicate the number of persons on board to the passenger registrar (Article 9(2)(b)).

Before the ship sets sail. the master shall ensure that the number of persons on board does not exceed the number the ship is permitted to carry (Article 7).

Within 30 minutes of departure, the passengers' personal data will be transmitted to the registrar (Article 5(2)). The number of passengers and the personal data so collected shall be at all times readily available for transmission to the designated authority for search and rescue purposes (Article 8, subparagraph 4). The personal data shall not be kept longer than necessary for the purposes of the Directive (Article 8, subparagraph 5).

The counting system must be in place by 1 January 1999. The system for registration of passengers must be applied no later than 1 January 2000 (Article 15).

IV. AMENDMENTS BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

1. Amendments by Parliament, accepted wholly or partly by Council and the Commission

In amendment 8, relating to Article 6 of the Commission proposal (Article 5 of the common position), Parliament proposed replacing the mention of 'age category` by 'age`; in order to maintain flexibility, Council could not accept this proposal as such but it did agree to make the mention of the precise age an additional option.

In amendment 8, last part, Parliament proposed modifying the last sentence of Article 6 of the proposal so that the personal data of the persons on board could be transmitted to the registrar before departure, and not within 30 minutes of departure. This amendment was accepted in part as the Council added a few words to Article 5(2) so as to indicate that the data 'shall be collected before departure`. The Council could not however accept that the data must be transmitted to the registrar before departure as well, as their processing sometimes requires a longer time in case of transiting passengers or where registration is made, not through the collection of boarding passes, but through other means such as the manual registration of the passengers. In any case, in the event of an accident, the names of the passengers are not instantly needed, the immediate concern being the salvage of the victims.

Amendment 11 relating to Article 8, fourth subparagraph, was accepted as the previous text would have submerged the public authorities under a great quantity of useless data.

2. Amendments by Parliament, not accepted by the Council, nor by the Commission

The new recitals proposed in amendments 1 and 2 were rejected since the Council is of the opinion that they ignore the achievements at Community and international level.

The new recitals proposed in amendments 3 and 4 were rejected since they refer to matters outside the scope of the draft Directive.

Amendments 5, 7 and 10, which aimed at creating, through additions to Articles 1, 3 and 8, a level playing-field between the Channel Tunnel and the cross-channel ferries, were not accepted because they referred to matters that are outside the scope of the Directive, which aims at harmonising the application, within the Community, of an important SOLAS requirement.

Amendment 6 concerning the insertion of a definition of 'seagoing passenger ship` in Article 2 was not accepted because it would result in the non-application of the Directive to seagoing ships operating in sheltered waters. In any case, the word 'seagoing` in the definition of passenger ship makes clear that the Directive concerns ships on maritime journeys.

In Amendment 8, first part (relating to Article 6 of the Commission proposal, Article 5 of the common position) and in amendment 12 (relating to Article 9(1), Parliament proposed extending the registration requirement to voyages of over two hours. This was not accepted as the duration of a journey is a vague criterion. In any case, Member States could introduce this criterion within the means of Article 9(1) for slower ships covering less than 20 miles in two hours or within the meaning of Article 9(2)(c) or 9(3) for faster ships covering more than 20 miles in two hours.

The Council also could not agree to replacing, in Article 6 of the Commission proposal (Article 5 of the common position), the option between 'first name or initial` by 'first name`, as it wanted to maintain a certain flexibility for the shipowners.

Amendment 9 concerning the insertion of a new Article 6a was regarded to be redundant since Article 5(2) already provides that the number of persons on board must, for journeys of any length, be transmitted to the passengers registrar before departure.

V. AMENDMENTS BY THE COUNCIL, NOT PROPOSED BY THE PARLIAMENT

The title

The Council added the words 'operating to or from ports of the Member States of the Community`, because administration of third countries cannot be requested to apply a Community Directive. (See on the same subject, Article 3 below).

The recitals

The Council redrafted the preamble in the light of new provisions that were introduced into the text (e.g. recital 14) and of amendments to the Commission's original proposal (e.g. recitals 15 and 17). It replaced certain texts by similar texts already used in other Directives (e.g. recitals 1 and 9), deleted certain useless sentences (e.g. in recital 8) and placed the paragraphs in a more logical order, or in the order of the Articles.

Recital 15, Article 6(2) in fine (Article 4, paragraph 2 of the original Commission proposal), Article 8, fourth subparagraph and Article 11(ii) (privacy)

The Council made several amendments to the Commission proposal in order to protect the privacy of the passengers: recital 15 recalls the applicability of Directive 95/46/EC; at the end of Article 6(2) and of Article 8, subparagraph 4, it added that the data should be made available to the authorities for search-and-rescue purposes and for settling the aftermath of an accident. Article 8(5), limits the keeping of personal data, although the proposed last sentence was deleted in order to permit shipping companies to keep information for the purposes of settling claims or inheritances in case of an accident. Finally, in Article 11(ii), 'availability` was substituted for 'accessibility`, as the latter word could imply direct access to computer files.

Article 2 (definitions)

In the definition of 'passenger ship`, the Council replaced 'passenger ships . . . which carry more than 12 passengers` by 'ships . . . which carry more than 12 passengers`, since under the IMO conventions, any ship carrying more than 12 passengers is automatically a passenger ship.

The words 'designated person` were replaced by 'passenger registrar` in order to avoid confusion with the 'designated person` in point 4 of the International Safety Management Code (7). The same change was made in Articles 4(2) and 5(2) and in Article 8, second indent.

The definition of 'sheltered waters` was replaced by the definition of 'protected sea area` (see Article 9(4)).

New definitions of 'regular services` and 'third country` were introduced. The former was taken from (EC) No Regulation 3051/95.

Article 3 (exclusion of journeys between third countries)

The second paragraph of the proposed Article was deleted because it could give the false impression that ships operating in cross trades have no rules to obey whereas, as indicated in recital 10, counting and registration will also apply in third countries under the provisions of SOLAS. In any case, the basic idea that the Directive does not apply to cross trades, is already reflected in Article 1 and in the title.

Article 5 (Article 4 of the Commission proposal) (communication of passenger lists)

At the end of paragraph 2, the words 'or to a shore-based system that performs the same function` were added, so as to put registration on the same footing as counting (see Article 4(2)).

Article 6 (Article 4 of the Commission proposal) (application to ships coming from third countries)

In order to improve the logic of the text, paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Article 4 of the Commission proposal became paragraphs 3, 1 and 2 of Article 6 of the common position.

Article 7 (maximum number of passengers)

The Council replaced 'the passenger ship has been certified` by the wider expression 'the passenger ship is permitted to carry`, since, under the SOLAS Convention, not all ships have a certificate about their maximum number of passengers.

Article 9 (exemptions and derogations)

The Council added a second sentence to paragraph 1, in order to ensure that any decision to register passengers on journeys shorter than 20 miles between two Member States will be taken jointly by those two States.

The Council inserted a new paragraph 2(a), which permits the Italian Republic to maintain its present system of counting across the Straits of Messina, until four years after entry into force of the Directive with a possibility for prolongation. Under that system, rail, bus and car passengers cannot be counted individually as they do not, as a rule, receive individual tickets for the sea crossing. However, the loading of railway carriages, cars and buses is stopped as soon as the maximum passenger capacity of all the vehicles taken on board reaches, when added to the number of the other passengers, the maximum passenger capacity of the ship.

Regarding the exemption from the obligation to notify the registrar of the number of persons on board (Article 9(2)(b) of the common position, Article 9(2)(1) of the Commission proposal), the Council replaced 'sheltered waters`, i.e. waters with a low wave height, by 'protected sea areas`, i.e. waters 'sheltered from open sea effects`. This term was taken from Article 7(3) of the common position for a Council Directive on safety rules and standards for passenger ships (8). The Council also extended the duration of the crossing from 30 minutes to one hour.

In the exemption from the registration of passengers, provided for in Article 9(2)(c) (Article 9(2)(2) of the Commission proposal), the Council again replaced 'sheltered waters` by 'protected sea areas`. The words 'or from and to the same port without intermediate calls` were added in order to cover cruises. The requirement for the proximity of search and rescue facilities was transferred to the definition of 'protected sea area` in Article 2.

Finally, the Council added a new paragraph 4 permitting Member States to request the Commission for an authorisation to exempt from the registration requirement regular services or not more than about 30 miles or regular services to isolated communities, operating in areas with low average wave heights where adequate navigational guidance, weather forecasts and search and rescue facilities are available, and where registration of passengers would be impracticable.

Article 10 (registration systems)

The Council made a few editorial improvements.

Article 11 (registration systems)

The Council deleted point (iii) of the proposal (criterion of readiness), as it repeated Articles 4(1) and 5(2), as amended. It also deleted point (vi) because it was hard to see what alternative means of registration could be devised for small ships using very simple registration systems based on pen and paper.

Article 12 (commitology)

The Council deleted the proposed points (a) and (b) as they would extend legislative powers of the commitology procedure. For the same reason, it added 'without broadening its scope` to the remaining sentence proposed by the Commission.

Article 13 (commitology procedure)

In view of the importance of the tasks entrusted to the Committee pursuant to Articles 9 and 12, the Council replaced the procedure for an advisory Committee by the procedure of a regulatory committee, type IIIa.

Article 14 (Article 15(3) of the Commission proposal) (penalties)

Article 15(3) of the Commission proposal was transferred to a new Article 14 in order to make sure that it would be covered by Article 15(1), which leaves it up to Member States to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive.

Article 15 (Article 14 of the Commission proposal) (dates)

The Council postponed by one year the proposed dates of implementation of 1 January 1998 and 1 January 1999, as the Directive will probably be adopted after 1 January 1998.

(1) OJ C 31, 31.1.1997, p. 7.

(2) OJ C 206, 7.7.1997, p. 111.

(3) OJ C 182, 16.6.1997, p. 14.

(4) OJ C 275, 11.9.1997, p. 7.

(5) OJ C 379, 22.12.1994, p. 8.

(6) Regulation III/27 of SOLAS:

'1. All persons on board all passenger ships shall be counted prior to departure.

2. Details or persons who have declared a need for special care or assistance in emergency situations shall be recorded and communicated to the master prior to departure.

3. In addition, not later than 1 January 1999, the names and gender of all persons on board, distinguishing between adults, children and infants shall be recorded for search and rescue purposes.

4. The information required by paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall be kept ashore and made readily available to search and rescue services when needed.

5. Administrations may exempt passenger ships from the requirements of paragraph 3, if the scheduled voyages of such ships render it impracticable for them to prepare such records`.

(7) The ISM Code is annexed to Regulation (EC) No 3051/95 of 8 August 1995 on the safety management of roll-on/roll-off passenger ferries (ro-ro ferries) (OJ L 320, 30.12.1995, p. 14).

(8) OJ C 293, 26.9.1997, p. 1.