WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1322/97 by Mark WATTS to the Commission. Sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise - 6 March 1987
Date: 1997-04-11
Institutions: European Parliament, WATTS
Subjects: carriage of passengers, ferryboat, international transport, maritime safety, maritime transport, national transport, prevention of pollution, safety standard, transport accident













EUR-Lex - 91997E1322 - EN






Avis juridique important




|



91997E1322

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1322/97 by Mark WATTS to the Commission. Sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise - 6 March 1987  


Official Journal C 373 , 09/12/1997 P. 0104 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-1322/97 by Mark Watts (PSE) to the Commission (11 April 1997)Subject: Sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise - 6 March 1987As the Commission will be aware, 6 March 1997 was the 10th Anniversary of the sinking of the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' off Zeebrugge, when almost 200 people were killed.Will the Commission please comment on the maritime safety lessons learned from this disaster?Joint answer to Written Questions E-1322/97 and E-1323/97 given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission (23 May 1997)In the aftermath of the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' disaster, the deficiencies brought to light by the Court of Enquiry set up by the British government were taken into account by the Commission and the Member States in the course of giving support to proposals made to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to adopt a set of amendments to the 1974 Safety Of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention that were aimed at preventing the recurrence of such accidents and at improving the safety of ro-ro passenger ships in general.The adoption - in 1988 and 1992 - of subsequent amendments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention has resulted in the implementation of a number of specific safety measures for ro-ro passenger ships as listed in a table sent direct to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament's Secretariat General.Following the Estonia disaster on 28 September 1994, the IMO established a panel of experts to undertake a comprehensive review of the safety of ro-ro passenger ships. That action resulted in the adoption, by an ad-hoc SOLAS Conference in November 1995, of an additional set of amendments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention. They are also listed in the table mentioned above.To ensure that all these specific safety measures would also be applied to passenger ships engaged on domestic voyages in the Community, the Commission, in its proposal for a Council directive on safety rules and standards for passenger ships ((OJ C 238, 16.8.1996. )), has incorporated those SOLAS amendments, which, under the 1974 SOLAS Convention only applied to passenger ships engaged on international voyages.In response to the Council Resolution of 22 December 1994 on the safety of ro-ro passenger ferries ((OJ C 379, 31.12.1994. )), the Commission tabled a proposal for an advanced mandatory application of the International safety management (ISM) Code by 1 July 1996 to all regular ro-ro passenger ferry services operating to or from Community ports ((OJ C 298, 11.11.1995. )). Following this proposal, on 8 December 1995 the Council adopted Council Regulation (EC)No 3051/95 on the safety management of ro-ro ferries ((OJ L 320, 30.12.1995. )).In a further response to the Council Resolution of 22 December 1994, the Commission also tabled a proposal for a Council directive on the registration of persons sailing on board passenger ships ((OJ C 31, 31.01.1997. )) envisaging a coherent application in the Community of the SOLAS provisions on the information on passengers on passenger ships and high speed passenger craft engaged on international and domestic voyages.