WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3587/98 by Alexandros ALAVANOS to the Commission. Exemption of Greece from Directive 98/18/EC
Date: 1998-12-03
Institutions: ALAVANOS, European Parliament
Subjects: Greece, carriage of passengers, derogation from EU law, inland transport, island, maritime safety, maritime transport, national law, safety standard, transport safety













EUR-Lex - 91998E3587 - EN






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91998E3587

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3587/98 by Alexandros ALAVANOS to the Commission. Exemption of Greece from Directive 98/18/EC  


Official Journal C 297 , 15/10/1999 P. 0082 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-3587/98by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission(3 December 1998)Subject: Exemption of Greece from Directive 98/18/ECDirective 98/18/EC(1) on safety rules and standards for passenger ships provides that existing ships over 27 years old on 1 October 2000 must be substantially upgraded to make them safer. However, ships flying the Greek flag, and notably ships operating exclusively on domestic voyages between ports situated in Greece, are exempted; they will be withdrawn when they are 35 years old.Will the Commission say:1. Why is it safe to allow ships operating routes to the Greek islands not to be upgraded, but unsafe in the case of ships of other Member States which have to be upgraded?2. Does the Commission envisage the possibility that ships which have not been adequately upgraded and operate routes in other Member States may be sold to Greek shipowners to be used to operate routes between Greek ports?3. Has Greece forwarded to the Commission a list of existing passenger ships exempted from the provisions of the above directive on the basis of Article 6.3(g) of the above directive?Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission(7 January 1999)1. The Commission has no reason to believe that the risks involved for passenger ships providing services between islands in Greece would be less than for those operating on domestic voyages in other Member States. The derogation in Article 6.3.(g) of Council Directive 98/18/EC to exempt a limited number of existing passenger ships from compliance with some of the upgrading requirements of the Directive has been granted to Greece for reasons of socio-economic cohesion, whilst giving due consideration to the fact that, unlike other Member States, Greece imposes a maximum age limit of 35 years on passenger ships for operation on domestic voyages. As the upgrading requirements in the Directive entail major structural modifications and substantial investments, it is considered that requiring this upgrading for ships with a remaining service life of less than 8 years would not be economically viable.2. The Commission does not foresee a risk that passenger ships not complying with the upgrading requirements of the Directive would be sold to Greek owners to be engaged on domestic voyages between Greek ports. This risk has been excluded by limiting the possibility for derogation of Article 6.3.(g) to existing passenger ships which were already operating exclusively on domestic voyages in Greece before 1 January 1996 or which were transferred to such domestic voyages prior to the date of entry into force of the Directive.3. Greece has notified to the Commission, in accordance with Article 6.3.(g), the list of existing passenger ships for which the derogation of Article 6.3.(g) may be applied. This list will be published in the Official journal in the near future.(1) OJ L 144, 15.5.1998, p. 1.