WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1633/98 by Amedeo AMADEO to the Commission. Shipping using Community ports
Date: 1998-05-29
Institutions: AMADEO, European Parliament
Subjects: approximation of laws, harbour installation, international standard, maritime safety, prevention of pollution, right to stopover, safety standard, transport safety, vessel, working conditions

C 50/58

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

22.2.1999

These difficulties were highlighted in a report from the Commission to the Council and Parliament on
arrangements for taxing transactions carried out by non-established taxable persons (2). The Commission took
that opportunity to call on the Member States to review their legislation with a view to introducing greater
flexibility so that excessive constraints were not imposed on non-established taxable persons.

Given that those recommendations were not sufficiently implemented by the Member States and that the resulting
difficulties were highlighted by the SLIM team (Simpler Legislation for the Internal Market) in October 1997, the
Commission has undertaken to present in the near future a draft directive which would amend Article 21 of the
Sixth VAT Directive in such a way as to ease the burden of obligations on non-established taxable persons.

(1) OJ L 145, 13.6.1977.
(2) COM(94) 471 final.

(1999/C 50/081)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1633/98

by Amedeo Amadeo (NI) to the Commission

(29 May 1998)

Subject: Shipping using Community ports

I would refer to the Proposal for a Council Directive amending Council Directive 95/21/EC concerning the
enforcement, in respect of shipping using Community ports and sailing in the waters under the jurisdiction of the
Member States, of international standards for ship safety, pollution prevention and shipboard living and working
conditions (port State control) (COM(97) 416 final › 97/0215 SYN) (1), stress my support for the ISM Code,
which is an important instrument for improving maritime safety provisions at world level and welcome the
Commission(cid:146)s proposal to make it compulsory to detain a ship where the recognized documents of compliance or
safety management certificates are missing.

Can the Commission ensure that the provisions relating to the checks carried out by the port State are applied
uniformly throughout Community territory to avoid tempting owners to send ships which do not entirely comply
with the requirements to ports where the inspection system seems to be applied less rigorously?

(1) OJ C 264, 30.8.1997, p. 33.

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(23 June 1998)

The need to ensure that port state control inspections are carried out to a consistent level of integrity is a
fundamental principle of the whole port state control system. The entry into force of the new provisions,
including the compulsory detention of those ships that do not comply with the requirements of the international
standards method (ISM) code, requires an even greater effort to reach a higher level of harmonisation throughout
the Community.

The Commission is well aware that lack of harmonisation between the port state control regimes of Member Stats
can lead to distortions of competition among the ports and have a detrimental effect on safety. For this reason, the
Commission is closely monitoring the performances of the Member States in this area. Furthermore, given that
appropriate and uniform training of all the Community inspectors is a prerequisite for harmonised application of
port state control throughout the Community. The Commission finances such training on a permanent basis. An
ad hoc training course for port state control inspectors on the ISM code will be carried out at the end of May 1998,
in view of the entry into force of the latest amendments from 1 July 1998 to Council Directive 98/25/EC of
27 April 1998 amending Directive 95/21/EC concerning the enforcement, in respect of ships using Community
ports and sailing in the waters under the jurisdiction of the Member States, of international standards for ship
safety, pollution prevention and shipboard living and working conditions (port state control (1)).

(1) OJ L 133, 7.5.1998.