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 Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down technical requirements for inland waterway vessels and repealing Council Directive 82/714/EEC
Date: 2006-03-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: harmonisation of standards, inland waterway shipping, maritime safety, technical regulations, technical standard

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 14.3.2006 
COM(2006) 126 final 

1997/0335 (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 Directive of the European 
Parliament and of the Council laying down technical requirements for inland waterway 
vessels and repealing Council Directive 82/714/EEC  

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1997/0335 (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 Directive of the European 
Parliament and of the Council laying down technical requirements for inland waterway 
vessels and repealing Council Directive 82/714/EEC  

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(1997) 644 final – 1997/0335 (COD): 

9 December 1997 

Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social 
Committee: 

25 March 1998 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

20 October 1998 

Change of the legal basis following the entry into force of the 
Treaty of Amsterdam introducing the co-decision procedure for the 
transport sector: 

1 May 1999 

Date of the confirmation of the European Parliament’s opinion 
adopted at first reading: 

16 September 1999 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal 
(document COM(2000) 419 final): 

19 July 2000 

Date of the partial political agreement of the Council relating to the 
operative part of the draft Directive: 

9 December 2004 

Date of adoption of the common position (by unanimity): 

23 February 2006 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The  Commission  amended  proposal  for  a  Directive  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council  amending  Directive  82/714/EEC  of  4  October  1982  laying  down  technical 
requirements  for  inland  waterway  vessels  aims  at  aligning  the  Community  technical 
requirements  on  the  advanced  standards  governing  navigation  of  the  Rhine  with  a  view  to 
establishing  a  single  scheme  for  the  entire  network  of  European  waterways.  It  should  also 
facilitate the adaptation of these technical requirements in the future, by way of a comitology 
procedure,  in  the  light  of  technical  progress  and  of  developments  arising  from  the  work  of 

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other international organisations, in particular that of the Central Commission for Navigation 
on the Rhine (CCNR). 

The internal market and the development of free inland navigation on all waterways in the EU 
require the harmonisation or alignment of technical and safety requirements according to the 
highest  standards.  This  will  further  both  the  free  movement  of  goods  and  high  safety, 
environmental  and  social  standards.  At  the  same  time  the  harmonisation  of  technical 
requirements  and  the  mutual  recognition  of  certificates  will  improve  the  conditions  for  fair 
competition  and  establish  a  genuine  level  playing  field  in  inland  waterway  transport  in  the 
single market. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

Between  1999  and  2004,  discussions  in  the  Council  remained  at  a  standstill  because  of  the 
question of the possibility of admitting craft with Community certificates to navigation on the 
Rhine. Whereas the Revised Convention for Navigation on the Rhine did previously not allow 
the  recognition  of  certificates  which  were  not  issued  by  the  Rhine  riparian  countries  and 
Belgium, this situation changed with the adoption and entry into force (on 1 December 2004) 
of  Additional  Protocol  No. 7  to  the  abovementioned  Convention.  Once  a  legal  basis  for  the 
recognition  of  certificates  delivered  by  bodies  other  than  the  Rhine  riparian  countries  and 
Belgium had been established, the Council was able to reach partial political agreement on the 
operative part of the draft Directive, and several months later also on the text of the annexes.  

The  Council  has  agreed  on  the  main  lines  of  the  Commission  proposal,  while  slightly 
modifying  the  text  of  some  articles  either  for  clarification  purposes  or  in  order  to 
accommodate concerns brought forward by certain Member States. The Commission is of the 
opinion that these amendments do not alter the objectives of its proposal. 

This  Common  Position  text  does  not  only  constitute  the  current  Council  position,  but  also 
incorporates almost all of Parliament’s amendments in first reading.  

Most  of  these  changes  are  formal,  sometimes  leading  to  a  replacement  of  words,  phrases, 
paragraphs or articles. For example, Parliament’s amendment to replace a fixed date on which 
Member  States  must  implement  the  provisions  necessary  to  comply  with  the  Directive  by  a 
definition of this date in relation to the day of publication has been taken up. To this end, a 
reference to the entry into force of the Directive has been inserted in Articles 3 (1) a), 5 (5) a), 
8 (1) and (2), 13 (2) and (3), 22, 23 and 25, as well as in the Annexes.  

Given that technical progress and developments arising from the work of other international 
organisations,  namely  the  CCNR,  did  not  come  to  a  halt  during  the  “hibernation”  of  the 
Directive,  a  Joint  Working  Group  of  Experts  from  EU  Member  States,  the  CCNR  and  the 
European Commission has worked continuously since 2002 in order to adapt the voluminous 
technical  annexes  of  the  Directive.  During  this  procedure,  three  new  annexes  –  currently 
numbered 7, 8 and 9 – were inserted in the text. The Council has integrated the result of these 
works in the Common Position.  

The  Council  has  also  accepted  Parliament’s  amendment,  taken  up  by  the  amended 
Commission  proposal,  to  insert  a  reference  to  passenger  sailing  vessels  in  the  list  of 
definitions (Annex II, Part I, Chapter 1, Article 1.01, section 19). In addition, a new chapter 
on  passenger  sailing  vessels  (Annex  II,  Part  II,  Chapter  15a),  elaborated  by  the 

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abovementioned expert group, has been added to Annex II of the Directive. 

The number of changes which the Council has introduced is limited and the changes can be 
deemed to be in line with the objectives of the original Commission proposal and its amended 
proposal. 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

The most important change relates to Article 3, concerning the “Obligation to carry 
a certificate”.  The  text of  this Article, which provides for the  equivalency  between 
the technical requirements as defined in Annex II of the Directive and the technical 
requirements laid down in application of the Revised Convention for Navigation on 
the  Rhine,  is  the  result  of  in-depth  preparative  discussions  between  the  European 
Commission  and  the  EU  Member  States  which  are  members  of  the  CCNR.  This 
Article  constitutes  the  cornerstone  of  the  Directive,  because  it  ensures  that 
certificates  issued  under  this  Community  Directive  give  rights  to  navigation  on  the 
Rhine equivalent to those given by certificates issued by the Rhine riparian countries 
and Belgium.  

The Commission can support the amendment of Article 5, concerning “Additional or 
reduced technical requirements for certain zones”, which has been modified in order 
to  accommodate  the  concerns  of  some  Member  States  to  have  the  possibility  to 
disapply the transitional provisions set out in Chapter 24a of Annex II in those cases 
where  their  application  would  result  in  a  reduction  of  existing  national  safety 
standards. 

Article 19, concerning the “Committee procedure”, has been modified so as to follow 
the general rules for Committee procedures according to Articles 3 and 7 of Decision 
1999/468/EC. 

From  a  formal  point  of  view,  the  Council  has  modified  the  proposal  into  a  recast 
exercise,  replacing  the  current  Directive  82/714/EEC.  This  means  that  it  also 
contains all Articles of the current Directive which have not been amended, and that 
a new Article 25 concerning the “Repeal of Directive 82/714/EEC” has been added 
to the text. 

In Article 27 new, concerning ”Addressees”, the text was modified so as to provide 
that  the  Directive  is  only  addressed  to  those  Member  States  which  have  inland 
waterways as referred to in Article 1(1). The Commission can accept this limitation. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

For the above stated reasons, the Commission considers that the Common Position adopted by 
the  Council  with  unanimity  on  23/02/2006  does  not  alter  the  aims  and  approach  of  its 
proposal and so can support it, all the more because the Common Position takes due account 
of  amendments  proposed  by  European  Parliament  in  its  first  reading  and  of  the  amended 
Commission position.  

5. 

COMMISSION DECLARATION 

The Commission made a unilateral declaration at the occasion of the adoption of the Common 
Position (see Annex I).  

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ANNEX I 

Commission declaration 

When  implementing  the  present  Directive,  the  Commission  commits  itself  to  a  close 
cooperation with CCNR, both concerning the adaptation of the Annexes and concerning the 
application  of  the  Directive  by  Member  States,  and  to  take  into  account  all  initiatives 
undertaken by CCNR in this regard. 

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