COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Committee on Safe Seas and amending the Regulations on maritime safety and the prevention of pollution from ships and a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Directives on maritime safety and the prevention of pollution from ships

2000/0236 (COD) 2000/0237 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Committee on Safe Seas and amending the Regulations on maritime safety and the prevention of pollution from ships and a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Directives on maritime safety and the prevention of pollution from ships

1. Background

Date when the proposal was sent to the EP and to the Council: (document COM(2000)489 final - 2000/0236 (COD) - 2000/0237(COD)) : // 15.9.2000

Date of the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee: // 28.2.2001

Date of the opinion of the Committee of Regions: // 4.4.2001

Date of European Parliament opinion on first reading: // 13.2.2001

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: // 27.12.2001

Date of adoption of the common position: // 27.5.2002

2. Aim of the Commission proposal

The aim of the Commission proposal is to set up a Committee on Safe Seas to replace the various committees set up by the directives and regulations in force, and to facilitate the updating of this legislation in view of developments in international law.

Two separate proposals have been made:

- A proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council, which establishes the Committee on Safe Seas and lays down the procedures governing its operation and its scope. The proposal applies to the Committee on Safe Seas the new regulatory procedure set up by Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission. The proposal also amends existing regulations in the field of maritime safety, both to take account of the establishment of the Committee on Safe Seas and to facilitate their subsequent updating in the light of developments in international legislation on maritime safety.

- A proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council, the aim of which is to amend the existing directives in the field of maritime safety in order to take account of the establishment of the Committee on Safe Seas and to facilitate their subsequent updating.

3. Comments on the common position

3.1. General observations on common position

The Commission welcomed the amendments adopted by Parliament in its first reading and included the substance of those amendments in its amended proposal of 27.12.2001.

The Council broadly supported the aims of the amended proposal, and unanimously adopted a common position on a text which reflects its content. However, a number of additional amendments were made, essentially in order to clarify certain aspects of the Commission proposal. The most important amendments concern the conformity checking procedure: the Council wanted the aims and procedures to be spelt out in greater detail.

3.2. Action taken on Parliament's amendments

Parliament's opinion was very favourable to the Commission's proposal, and sought to strengthen certain provisions.

The following were accepted both by the Commission in its amended proposal and by the Council in its common position (in some cases with formal adaptations):

* Amendments which stress that the mission of the committee set up by the proposal is not limited to maritime safety but extends to the prevention of pollution from ships and to shipboard living and working conditions (however, neither the Council nor the Commission accepted the reference to protection of the marine environment, because of the risk of confusion with the aim of preventing pollution). The Commission has included the prevention of pollution from ships in the name of the committee. To make the text easier to read, the Committee on Safe Seas and the Prevention of Pollution from Ships has been given the acronym "COSS".

* Amendments stressing the role of the European Parliament in the regulatory procedure and aligning the proposed wording must be aligned on the standard wording of the committee procedures approved at interinstitutional level.

* Amendment making clear that amendment to the Community legislation under the conformity checking procedure pursuant to Article 4 is possible only if the Commission or a Member State certifies that there is a safety risk or a danger of incompatibility with the Community legislation on maritime safety. In its common position the Council took over the text as reworked by the Commission, which clarifies the aim of the amendment, namely to specify the starting point for the conformity checking procedure (which can be triggered by the Commission or by a Member State).

3.3. New provisions introduced by the Council and position of the Commission

3.3.1. During discussions at the European Parliament, the Council and other bodies such as the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, it became clear that there was a danger of confusion between the tasks of the COSS and those of the European Maritime Safety Agency; the tasks of the latter were described in the proposal for a Regulation of 6 December 2000. In order to remove any danger of confusion, the Commission clarified the role of the COSS in its amended proposal as follows.

- COSS will act only in fields already covered by the committee procedure under the legislation in force: there will be no broadening of the scope of the existing committees.

- The aim of the conformity checking procedure is solely to enable the European Community to react rapidly and effectively, in accordance with the principle that Community law takes precedence, in the unlikely event of a conflict between an amendment to an international instrument in the course of adoption and a Community directive or regulation applying the existing version of the said international instrument.

These clarifications were taken over in the Council's common position.

3.3.2. The Council also made the following amendments to the text of the amended proposal.

- In Article 2(1) of the proposal for a Regulation, the reference to standards bodies is deleted, as such bodies may be private bodies and the Governments of the Member States may not be suitably represented on them. Automatic recognition of the standards they adopt should therefore be avoided.

- A new Article 3a is inserted into the proposal for a Regulation in order to state clearly that one of the aims of the proposal is to permit the incorporation of the most recent amendments to the international instruments, with the exception of any excluded under the conformity checking procedure. This was not included in the main body of the proposal for a Regulation adopted by the Commission.

- The main amendments concern Article 4 of the Regulation, which concerns the conformity checking procedure. The Council made the following amendments.

- An obligation for the Commission and the Member States to cooperate with a view to detecting as early as possible any danger of divergence between Community legislation and international amendments is inserted into paragraph 1.

- The conformity checking procedure as described by the Commission is clarified and simplified, in particular by deleting all reference to the specific procedure of tacit acceptance of international amendments by the IMO, judged too complex and superfluous.

3.3.3. The common position updates the proposal in the light of the adoption of new Community directives. In particular, the COSS procedure will apply to the following directives:

- Directive 2000/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2000 on port reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues;

- Directive 2001/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the minimum level of training of seafarers, which repeals and replaces Council Directive 94/58/EC of 22 November 1994;

- Directive 2001/96/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 4 December 2001 establishing harmonised requirements and procedures for the safe loading and unloading of bulk carriers.

3.3.4. The common position corrects a number of substantive errors in the original directives.

- Article 17 of Directive 96/98/EC on marine equipment is amended so that Annex A1 can be updated by the regulatory procedure (point already included in the Commission's amended proposal).

- The references to international conventions (and in particular to the SOLAS Convention) in Directive 98/18/EC on safety rules and standards for passenger ships are amended.

- The list of international conventions covered by Directive 95/21/EC on port State control is updated.

The Commission can accept the amendments set out in the common position, which clarify the initial text of the proposal and make essential corrections and updates, and are in line with the aims of the Commission proposal. The common position strengthens the initial text on a number of points, in particular by providing a clear legal basis for cooperation between the Commission and the Member States during the phase preceding the negotiation of amendments to international conventions.

4. Conclusions

The Commission considers that the common position adopted unanimously by the Council is acceptable, because it complies with the basic principles of the original proposal. It takes account of Parliament's amendments and of the amendments contained in the Commission's amended proposal.