Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3577/92 applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport within Member States (maritime cabotage) (98/C 213/09) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(1998) 251 final - 98/0158(SYN)

(Submitted by the Commission on 3 June 1998)

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,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189c of the Treaty in cooperation with the European Parliament,

Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 3577/92 (1) lays down the principle that the implementation of the freedom to provide services is not necessarily to be applied in a uniform way for all services concerned, regard being had to the nature of certain specific services;

Whereas Article 3 of that Regulation, therefore, establishes different manning rules for mainland and island cabotage and imposes the obligation on the Commission to submit a proposal to the Council, on the basis of a report on the economic and social impact of the liberalisation of island cabotage, which may include adjustments to the manning nationality provisions laid down in that Article, so that the definitive system may be approved by the Council before 1 January 1999;

Whereas the abovementioned report was submitted by the Commission to the Council on 17 June 1997; whereas it follows from the research carried out that the present rule which provides, in respect of island cabotage, that all matters related to manning are to be the responsibility of the host State, constitutes an unnecessary hindrance to the proper functioning of the single market;

Whereas the cargo-cabotage sector is closely interlinked with the international market for maritime shipping; whereas no compelling economic arguments have been found to justify a permanent departure from the usual flag-State conditions, except in the case of services of merely local importance;

Whereas the promotion of employment within the Community is one of the objectives of the Treaty;

Whereas the particular characteristics of the sector for regular passenger and ferry services would justify certain special provisions to counteract any possible disruption of competitive conditions through the use of non-member-country crews paid at the wage-level of their country of origin; whereas the same arguments are applicable to the sector of scheduled cabotage-cruise services;

Whereas it is appropriate to require that non-member-country nationals employed within the abovementioned sectors shall not be treated less favourably than Community residents;

Whereas Regulation (EC) No 3577/92 should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 3577/92 is hereby replaced by the following:

'Article 3

(1) For vessels carrying out cabotage services other than those referred to in paragraph 2, all matters relating to manning shall be the responsibility of the State in which the vessel is registered (flag State), except for ships smaller than 650 gt, where the conditions in force in the State in which the vessel is performing its services (host State) may be applied.

(2) For vessels carrying out regular passenger and ferry services, including mixed passenger/cargo services and scheduled cruise services, the rules concerning the required proportion of Community nationals in the crew (namely all staff employed on board) as in force in the host State shall apply. All other matters relating to manning shall be the responsibility of the flag State.

(3) Where host States allow non-member-country nationals to be employed on board ships carrying out cabotage services as referred to in paragraph 2, they shall require that those crew members shall be treated in the terms and conditions of their employment as residents of the Member State being the flag State. The host State shall apply its own terms and conditions of employment to non-member-country seafarers on board its national vessels carrying out such services.

(4) Member States' measures implementing the provisions of this Article shall be notified to the Commission in accordance with Article 9.`

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

(1) OJ L 364, 12.12.1992, p. 7.