Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on reporting formalities for ships arriving in and departing from Community ports"

(2001/C 221/24)

On 26 February 2001 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 80(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 8 May 2001. The rapporteur was Mr Kröger.

At its 382nd plenary session, held on 30 and 31 May 2001 (meeting of 30 May), the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 50 votes to four with three abstentions.

1. Introduction

1.1. A considerable amount of information has to be provided by seagoing ships entering and departing from Community ports. This information mainly concerns the status of the ship, its crew, the nature and size of the cargo, the passengers on board and the ship's stores. Such information is required in connection with: the payment of duties; decisions taken by the port authorities on safety matters; monitoring observance of immigration rules; the compiling of statistics and, generally, the smooth clearance of ships.

1.2. The content of much of the information is the same for every port. The format of the information required by many ports, does, however, differ. In other ports the content of the information required is also not the same.

1.3. The fact that the information with the same content is formatted differently is both time-consuming and highly costly to the shipping industry. It complicates administrative procedures not just for overseas shipping but also, and in particular, for short sea shipping. The aim is to facilitate clearance of seagoing ships and to make maritime transport correspondingly more efficient, whilst at the same time not reducing the content of the information required by the authorities of the Member States.

2. The Commission proposal

2.1. The Commission proposes to standardise both the content and the format of the information to be provided in respect of ships arriving in and departing from Community ports. The proposal is based on the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) Convention on Facilitation of Maritime Traffic of 9 April 1965 (IMO FAL Convention). The Convention came into force in 1967 and has since been amended on several occasions. The Convention covers six standardised forms. These forms relate to: basic data in respect of the status of ships on entering and leaving ports; the cargo declaration; the ship's stores declaration; the crew's effects declaration; the crew list; and the passenger list. Under the Proposal for a Directive, the Member States are to enact legislation ensuring that the standardised IMO FAL forms may be used and have to be accepted for the provision of information in the abovementioned fields. The requisite specifications for the individual declarations are set out in Annex I to the Proposal for a Directive.

2.2. The standardised forms are to be used on a uniform basis, except in two cases:

2.2.1. The proposal for a Directive does not stipulate use of the standardised IMO FAL form in respect of the cargo declaration. In practice this information is contained in ships' cargo manifests. The information set out in these manifests is used for both commercial and administrative purposes.

2.2.2. Use of the IMO FAL standardised passenger list is stipulated only in the case of cargo ships which carry passengers. In the case of the carriage of passengers on passenger ships, Council Directive 98/41/EC of 18 June 1998 on the registration of persons sailing on board passenger ships operating to or from ports of the Member States of the Community(1) requires more information to be provided than is the case with the IMO FAL form. In all other cases the provisions of the Proposal for a Directive are based on the use of the IMO FAL standardised forms.

2.3. Use of the standardised forms is to be authorised in respect of all ships arriving in or departing from Community ports, irrespective of their flag or whether they are engaged in intra-European traffic or international maritime traffic.

2.4. When the required data are transmitted electronically, the electronic end-format on the end-user screen and when printed has to tally with the standardised model forms.

2.5. The Proposal for a Directive does not oblige Member States to ratify the IMO Convention. In cases where Member States wish to have information on matters not covered by the standardised IMO FAL forms, they are therefore to be at liberty to require such information.

3. Observations

3.1. The Economic and Social Committee welcomes the Commission's proposal to standardise the format of the information which Member States require from seagoing ships entering and leaving Community ports. This will facilitate the clearance of seagoing ships in a key area.

3.2. The Proposal for a Directive will facilitate the administrative formalities involved in the clearance of seagoing ships. This will be particularly beneficial in the case of European short sea shipping. This trade involves ships regularly serving several European ports in the course of one journey and being repeatedly required to provide them with information. Short sea shipping is in competition with land transport which does not have to meet comparable reporting requirements. The harmonisation of conditions of competition between transport modes is therefore also brought a step closer by the Proposal for a Directive. It will, furthermore, facilitate administrative work in respect of crew members.

3.3. In earlier opinions the Economic and Social Committee repeatedly stressed the important role played by short sea shipping in coping with the growth in traffic in the internal market. This role will become still more important with the accession of east European states to the EU. The Maritime Industries Forum, which brings together representatives of the Commission, the Member States, the maritime transport industry, users, ports, service-providers in the logistics industry and trade unions, has on several occasions called for the removal of bureaucratic obstacles to European short sea shipping in order to make the use of this form of transport more attractive to users. In its resolution on the promotion of short sea shipping of 14 February 2000(2), the Council expressly called upon the Commission to present proposals to standardise the use of IMO FAL forms in the EU. The Proposal for a Directive under review meets these demands. It is therefore endorsed by the Economic and Social Committee. The Committee urges the Member States to gear their approach towards the pursuit of these policy objectives and to set aside special national desires as regards the provision of information.

3.4. The Committee welcomes the fact that the Commission has taken over the IMO Convention's international formats, rather than producing separate EU forms. This reflects the point frequently made by the Committee that if maritime transport is to form an efficient global sector of the economy, the application of standard international rules is a vital prerequisite.

3.5. It would be in line with this international approach if the ship's master or the shipping company concerned could choose to provide the requisite information also in English, in addition to providing it in the national language of the respective port. As the Proposal of a Directive rightly encompasses all ships entering Community ports, rather than distinguishing between flags or trades, it seems reasonable also to authorise the communication of the information to the Community ports in English. English is the basic medium for communication in international maritime transport.

3.6. The Economic and Social Committee attaches considerable importance to the streamlining of administrative procedures and the attendant facilitation of maritime transport in the EU. The IMO FAL Convention has so far been ratified by 81 countries. 52 of these have, however, lodged reservations about individual provisions, as a result of which the internationally agreed measures for facilitating procedures and promoting simplification have only been partially incorporated into national law. The Committee therefore calls on the Commission and the Member States to examine jointly the areas in which further harmonisation provisions could facilitate the procedures for clearing seagoing ships in Community ports. The Committee would draw attention in this context to, for example, the recommendation set out in the FAL Convention that for each port only one central body be appointed to which all the requisite information could be forwarded, even though several different authorities (e.g. customs authorities, health authorities, immigration bodies and others) are responsible for individual information. Administrative formalities would also be further facilitated by (a) implementation of the recommendation that a procedure be introduced for prior clarification of customs regulations in order to cut the time subsequently taken to clear ships and (b) observance of the recommendation that the efficiency and speed of maritime transport operations should not be impeded by the collection of statistical data. The Commission's current proposal should therefore be further developed in future Directives.

Brussels, 30 May 2001.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke Frerichs

(1) OJ L 188, 2.7.1998, p. 35.

(2) OJ C 56, 29.2.2000.