REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Report assessing the implementation and the impact of the measures taken according to Directive 2002/59/EC establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system
Date: 2011-04-28
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: information system, maritime safety, maritime transport, pollution from ships, transport accident, transport of dangerous goods

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 28.4.2011 
COM(2011) 232 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

Report assessing the implementation and the impact of the measures taken according to 
Directive 2002/59/EC establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and 
information system 

 
 
 
 
  
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

Report assessing the implementation and the impact of the measures taken according to 
Directive 2002/59/EC establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and 
information system 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

The aim of Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 
2002  establishing  a  Community  vessel  traffic  monitoring  and  information  system1  is  to 
establish  within  the  Community  a  vessel  traffic  monitoring  and  information  system  with  a 
view  to  enhance  the  safety  and  efficiency  of  maritime  traffic,  improve  the  response  of 
authorities to incidents, accidents or potentially dangerous situations at sea, including search 
and rescue operations and contribute to better prevention and detection of pollution by ships. 

To this end, the Directive provides for several new requirements in the field of vessel traffic 
monitoring  and  information  management,  taking  into  account  international  rules  for  ships 
reporting  systems,  vessel  traffic  services  and  the  technological  progress  in  the  field  of 
identification and monitoring of ships. 

To  enhance  the  establishment  of  an  EU-wide  vessel  traffic  monitoring  and  information 
system,  the  Directive  sets  obligations  to  establish  a  framework  of  cooperation  between 
Member States and the Commission.  

To ensure the availability of a place of refuge for ships in distress, the Directive establishes an 
obligation on Member States to draw up plans for the accommodation of such ships. 

The  Directive  applies  in  general  to  ships  of  300  gross  tonnage  and  upwards  and  to  bunkers 
above 5 000 tons on board ships. All ships calling at ports within the European Union, ships 
entering areas of mandatory ship reporting systems adopted by IMO and operated by Member 
States,  and  ships  involved  in  incident  and  accidents  within  the  search  and  rescue 
region/exclusive economic zone or equivalent of a Member State fall within the scope of the 
Directive.  

The effectiveness of the Directive depends on the implementation and enforcement actions by 
the Member States and the Commission. In this context, Article 26(1) imposes an obligation 
on Member States to report to the Commission on the progress in implementing the Directive 
and in particular, the provisions of Articles 9, 10, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25 by 5 February 2007 and 
on the full implementation of the Directive by 31 December 2009. Article 26(2) provides that 
the Commission reports to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation 
of  the  Directive2  with  a  view  in  particular  to  ascertaining  to  what  extent  the  Directive  is 

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2 

OJ L 208, 5.8.2002, p.10 
Directive 2002/59/EC has been amended by Directive 2009/17/EC of the European Parliament and of 
the Council of 23 April 2009 amending Directive 2002/59/EC establishing a Community vessel traffic 
monitoring and information system (OJ L 131, 28.5.2009, p. 101). These amendments have been taken 
into account when need be in the present report. 

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helping  to  increase  the  safety  and  efficiency  of  maritime  transport  and  prevent  pollution  at 
sea. The Commission shall do so on the basis of the above-mentioned reports from Member 
States. 

This report assesses the implementation of the Directive and the impact of the measures taken. 

2. 

METHOD OF THE EVALUATION  

The  implementation  of  the  Directive  by  Member  States  consists  of  both  legal  and  technical 
implementation.  Legal  implementation  is  achieved  through  formal  transposition  of  the 
Directive  and  enforcement  of  the  ensuing  national  legislation.  Technical  implementation 
consists  of  building  up  and  operating  the  necessary  shore-based  infrastructure  for  the 
receiving and exchanging of data.  

Besides the actions taken by the Member States, the Directive has been implemented at EU 
level by setting up an information system called SafeSeaNet. The system has been developed 
by the Commission in close cooperation with the Member States and the European Maritime 
Safety Agency (EMSA)3 within the framework of the SafeSeaNet Group.  

EMSA  operates  and  monitors  the  performance  and  data  quality  of  the  central  SafeSeaNet 
system on a 24 hour-a-day basis. Problems requiring immediate actions are communicated to 
Member  States  without  delay.  Issues  related  to  the  dataflow  in  general  are  reported  via 
quarterly data quality reports to the Member States. These reports are useful tools in assessing 
the technical implementation of the Directive in Member States as they give an overview of 
the  data  flow  from  the  national  systems  to  the  central  SafeSeaNet  system  and  of  the  data 
exchange through SafeSeaNet. 

Since 2009 EMSA has undertaken a programme of inspections on behalf of the Commission 
to  assess  the  implementation  of  the  Directive  in  Member  States.  While  the  inspections 
programme  is  ongoing,  in  December  2010,  eight  inspections  have  been  completed  and 
reported on to the Commission by EMSA. EMSA's inspection reports provide more detailed 
information  on  administrative,  procedural  and  operational  elements  of  the  implementation 
measures in Member States. Since the inspection results concern only a part of the Member 
States, the findings will be reflected only on a general level in this report. 

The evaluation of the implementation of Directive 2002/59/EC in this report is based on the 
Member States reports on the full implementation of the Directive. In assessing the actual data 
exchange  between  the  Member  States,  the  EMSA  quarterly  reports  on  the  SafeSeaNet  data 
quality have been used. 

3. 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DIRECTIVE 

The implementation of the Directive and the technical development of the Community vessels 
traffic monitoring and information system began almost from scratch and have therefore been 
done step by step since the adoption of the Directive in 2002. Transposition of the Directive 

3 

Regulation  (EC)  No  1406/2002  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  27  June  2002 
establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency, (OJ L 208, 5.8.2002, p.1) as amended.  

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into national legislation was the first step, which Member States were obliged to complete by 
5 February 2004.  

The second step was the building up of shore-based installation for the implementation of the 
Directive  by  the  end  of  2007  so  that  data  exchange  between  the  national  systems  was 
operational at the latest one year after that, by the end of 2008. 

For  the  purpose  of  evaluating  the  ongoing  implementation  measures,  Member  States  were 
obliged to report to the Commission on progress in implementing the Directive by 5 February 
2007. 

Finally, Member States were required to report on the full implementation of the Directive by 
31 December 2009. 

3.1. 

Transposition into national legislation 

Most  Member  States  notified  that  the  transposition  of  the  Directive  into  national  legislation 
had been completed in time, by 5 February 2004 or a few weeks later. However some delay 
did occur in some of them and the last notification by a Member State was received only in 
December 2005. 

On  the  basis  of  the  notifications  by  Member  States,  the  Commission  launched  a  few  non-
conformity  infringement  procedures.  All  these  procedures  are  now  closed,  the  last  one  in 
2008. 

3.2. 

Reports on the implementation by the Member States 

The  Commission  launched  a  questionnaire  to  assist  Member  States  in  reporting  on  the 
progress in implementing the Directive and in particular the provisions of Articles 9, 10, 18, 
20, 22, 23 and 25. The purpose of these progress reports was to ensure that the Member States 
had put in place by the end of 2007 all necessary equipment and shore-based installations for 
implementing  the  Directive  and  that  the  equipment  for  relaying  information  to  and 
exchanging it between the national systems was operational at the latest one year after that. 

Most Member States responded in time to the  questionnaire. Some infringement procedures 
had to be opened, but all were later closed, the last one in 2009.  

The  reports  on  the  full  implementation  of  the  Directive  were  submitted  by  three  Member 
States in due time, by 31 December 2009. Most Member States sent their reports by mid June 
2010. The last reports were received in September 2010. 

The  reports  from  some  Member  States  provide  only  quite  general  information  and  the 
Commission has sent letters to those Member States requesting more detailed information. 

3.3. 

Cooperation in developing the technical infrastructure and standards 

Proper  implementation  of  the  Directive  is  possible  only  through  efficient  electronic  data 
collection  and  exchange  between Member  States.  To  achieve  this,  the  Directive  imposes  an 
obligation  on  both  the  Member  States  and  the  Commission  to  cooperate  in  developing 
telematic links between coastal stations with a view to exchanging data on ship movements, 
port calls and cargo. 

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The  process  of  the  development  and  establishment  of  the  Community  Vessel  Traffic 
Monitoring  System  (SafeSeaNet)  has  been  carried  out  within  the  framework  of  the 
SafeSeaNet Group, consisting of Member States experts. Initially, this Group was chaired by 
the Commission. Since 2004 the Group has been chaired by EMSA and it has developed a full 
set of documentation, technical  specifications  and operational  procedures for the purpose of 
setting up the EU-wide SafeSeaNet system.  

The SafeSeaNet system consists of national systems and the central SafeSeaNet operated by 
EMSA. All these systems have been built and are operated in accordance with the technical 
specifications and procedures agreed in the SafeSeaNet Group. 

The work done for the development of SafeSeaNet and the experience gained in operating it 
was taken into account when the 3rd Maritime Safety package was drafted. In the framework 
of  the  3rd  maritime  safety  package  Directive  2002/59/EC  was  amended  by  Directive 
2009/17/EC,  which  gives  a  clear  legal  status  to  SafeSeaNet  and  sets  general  technical 
requirements  for  the  system.  The  amendment  also  provides  rules  for  the  management, 
operation, development and maintenance of SafeSeaNet. The Commission is responsible for 
the  management,  development  and  oversight  of  the  SafeSeaNet  system  at  policy  level,  in 
cooperation  with  Member  States.  EMSA  is  responsible  for  the  technical  implementation  of 
the system in cooperation with Member States and the Commission.  

For  the  management  of  SafeSeaNet,  the  Commission  established  the  High  Level  Steering 
Group on SafeSeaNet4on 31 July 2009 by Decision 2009/584/EC. The Group is composed of 
representatives  of  Member  States  and  the  Commission,  while  EMSA  has  a  permanent 
observer status and actively contributes to the work of the Group. 

4. 

KEY ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING THE DIRECTIVE 

Key issues in the implementation of the Directive are the transposition and enforcement of the 
ships'  notification  obligations,  the  administrative  and  technical  infrastructure  for  receiving 
these  notifications  and  for  monitoring  vessel  traffic  by  technical  means  (like  Automatic 
Identification System (AIS)), the setting up and operation of SafeSeaNet and the ability of the 
authorities to intervene in the events of accidents and incidents. 

4.1. 

Notifications by ships  

Notification obligations serve the purpose of identifying ships entering ports within the EU, 
tracking dangerous and polluting goods on board ships and providing immediate information 
on  accidents,  incidents  and  other  dangerous  situations  at  sea  for  the  rescue  and  response 
authorities of Member States. 

Prior to entry into a port notification 

A  prior  to  entry  into  a  port  notification  serves  the  purpose  of  identification  of  the  ship.  It 
contains  general  information  on  the  ship  (name,  identification  number,  port  of  destination, 
estimated time of arrival and departure and number of persons on board) and has to be given 
to the port Authority by the operator, agent or master of a ship bound for a port of a Member 
State, as a main rule, at least 24 hours in advance (Article 4).  

4 

OJ L 201, 1.8.2009, p.63 

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Notification of dangerous and polluting goods 

Dangerous or polluting goods (Hazmat) taken on board or carried on board a ship bound for a 
port  of  a  Member  State  must  be  notified  by  the  operator,  agent  or  master  of  a  ship  to  the 
competent  authority  (Article  13).  Information  on  technical  details  of  the  dangerous  or 
polluting goods offered for carriage or taken on board any ship in the EU has to be given by 
the shipper of the cargo to the master or operator of the ship before the cargo is taken onboard 
(Article 12). As a result of these notifications, information on hazardous cargoes on ships is 
available in the system for rescue and response authorities. 

Reporting of incidents and accidents at sea 

Obligation to ship masters to report accidents and incidents (e.g. collision, shifting of cargo, 
failures  in  steering  gear,  threat  of  discharge  of  polluting  products  into  the  sea)  gives  early 
warnings  to  the  search  and  rescue  and  response  authorities  of  coastal  Member  States  and 
supports the readiness to activate rescue and response measures (Article 17). 

Conclusion on notifications by ships 

All Member States have transposed the reporting obligation into national legislation. It can be 
concluded  that  the  legislation  regarding  notification  obligations  is  in  place  and  serves  the 
purposes for which it was conceived. 

Regarding the reporting of incidents and accidents at sea, it appears from EMSA's SafeSeaNet 
data  quality  report  that  Member  States  do  not  report  all  incidents  and  that  they  have  some 
difficulties  in  identifying  what  report  they  should  send.  There  also  seems  to  be  technical 
problems in reporting incidents electronically as other, non electronic means, like telephone 
facsimile, are still used. 

4.2.  Monitoring of ships movements and hazardous ships 

The main tools in monitoring ship movements are the shore-based installations for receiving 
and utilising the information received by the Automatic Identification System (AIS) on board 
the  ships  and  by  mandatory  ships'  reporting  systems  and  Vessel  Traffic  Services  (VTS) 
operated by the Member States.  

Automatic Identification System (AIS) 

Radio signals sent by an AIS system onboard a ship can normally be detected within 60 – 80 
km distance from the sending station. For this reason the AIS system is widely used also for 
monitoring ships from shore based stations even though it originally was made mandatory as 
navigational equipment for the purpose of preventing collisions. 

Member States are obliged to set up shore-based installations for receiving and utilising the 
information received by AIS (Article 9). These installations had to be completed by the end of 
2007 and national systems for relaying the information to and exchange between the national 
systems had to be operational one year after that.  

All coastal Member States have reported implementation of Article 9.  

Mandatory Ships Reporting Systems 

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Mandatory  Ship  Reporting  Systems  serve  the  purpose  of  identifying,  routing  and  assisting 
ships  with  information.  Member  States  are  obliged  to  monitor  and  ensure  that  all  ships 
entering a mandatory ship reporting system (MRS) adopted by the IMO and operated by one 
or  more  Member  States,  comply  with  the  system.  Member  States  and  the  Commission  are 
obliged to work together to put in place, where necessary, mandatory reporting systems with a 
view to submitting a proposal to the IMO for approval (Article 5). 

Mandatory Reporting Systems, referred to in Article 5, are currently operated by 13 coastal 
Member States. All these Members States have reported implementation of the obligations of 
Article  5.  Six  Member  States  operate  the  Western  European  Tanker  Reporting  System 
(WETREP),  which  is  a  mandatory  reporting  system  for  tankers  carrying  heavy  oil,  bitumen 
and tar adopted by the IMO in December 2004. These Member States have expressed doubts 
on  the  obligation  of  exchanging  the  WETREP  data  through SafeSeaNet with  other Member 
States and so far this data is not available in SafeSeaNet. Several meetings have taken place 
between  these  Member  States  and  the  Commission/EMSA  and  it  seems  that  a  practical 
solution  should  soon  be  found  so  that  WETREP  data  could  be  exchanged  through 
SafeSeaNet. The Commission is closely monitoring the situation. 

Information on ships posing a potential hazard 

For  preventing  accidents  and  incidents,  one  of  the  key  issues  is  the  ability  to  identify  and 
monitor ships posing a risk and the ability from public authorities to act, e.g. by restricting the 
movement  of  such  ships.  For  this  purpose,  criteria  for  ships  posing  a  potential  hazard  to 
shipping are defined in the Directive (Article 16). Ships involved in an incident or accident at 
sea, ships failing to comply with notification, reporting, ships' routing or VTS rules and ships 
involved in deliberate discharges of oil or in other infringements of the MARPOL Convention 
are considered to pose a potential hazard. Member States are obliged to transmit information 
on such ships to the relevant authorities in other Member States.  

All coastal Member States have reported that they comply with this obligation. 

4.3. 

Community vessel traffic monitoring system, SafeSeaNet 

The  implementation  of  the  Directive  has  led  to  the  development  of  SafeSeaNet,  the  unique 
EU-wide  tool  for  the  data  exchange  pursuant  to  the  Directive.  The  system  is  a  very  good 
example of cooperation between the Commission, Member States and EMSA. 

As mentioned above the SafeSeaNet system is composed of a network of national SafeSeaNet 
systems  in  Member  States  and  a  central  SafeSeaNet  system,  hosted  by  EMSA,  acting  as  a 
nodal  point.  The  system  enables  the  receipt,  storage,  retrieval  and  exchange  of  data  for  the 
purpose  of  maritime  safety,  port  and  maritime  security,  marine  environment  protection  and 
for the efficiency of maritime traffic and maritime transport.  

EMSA's Maritime Support Services play a central role in the oversight and monitoring of the 
performance and data quality of the system in cooperation with the competent authorities of 
the Member States. 

SafeSeaNet provides information on individual ships and a general or local image on vessel 
traffic in the European waters. 

Information  on  a  ship  includes  ship's  name  and  identification,  position,  status  (underway/in 
port),  ship's  type  and  dimensions,  time  of  departure  and  arrival  in  port,  hazardous  cargo 

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details and details of incidents the ship has been involved in. This information is stored into 
the system so that it is possible to track the full position history of a ship afterwards. 

The SafeSeaNet vessels traffic image (the graphical interface put in place by EMSA) shows 
the current position of all ships in EU waters on a single screen. By using the zoom facility of 
the system it is possible to obtain the image of a single port or sea area. It is also possible to 
display only certain types of ships, e.g. tankers or ships carrying hazardous goods. By using 
the IMO number of a ship, it is possible to consistently track movements of an individual ship 
in the EU waters. 

4.4. 

Intervention in the events of accidents and incidents at sea and places of refuge 

In the event of incidents or accidents, Member States are obliged to take appropriate measures 
to  ensure  the  safety  of  shipping  and  persons,  and  to  protect  the  marine  and  coastal 
environment  (Article  19).  These  measures  can  include  restrictions  on  ships'  movements,  an 
official notice to the master of the ship to put an end to a threat to maritime safety or to the 
environment, boarding the ships with an evaluation team to assess the situation and assist or 
instruct the master to put it at a place of refuge. 

For the purpose of being able to assist ships in distress, Member States are obliged (Article 
20) to draw up plans to accommodate, in waters under their jurisdiction, ships in distress and 
make these plans available upon demand. 

The accident of the tanker PRESTIGE occurred in November 2002, only a few months after 
the  Directive  had  entered  into  force.  The  accident  was  directly  related  to  the  "places  of 
refuge"  issues  and  led  to  Council  Conclusions5  urging  Member  States  to  accelerate  the 
drawing up of plans to accommodate ships in distress to places of refuge. As a result of this, 
the plans on places of refuge were submitted to the Commission by 1 July 2003 instead of by 
5 February 2004 as required by the Directive.  

On behalf of the Commission, EMSA carried out a desk-top assessment of the national plans. 
The  Commission  supported  by  EMSA,  visited  Member  States  to  evaluate  the  operational 
procedures and collect relevant information omitted from the original plans. 

Following  the  enlargement  of  the  EU,  an  information  update  on  the  implementing  and 
operational  measures  was  carried  out  in  2005  and  2006  by  EMSA  on  behalf  of  the 
Commission.  

The conclusion was globally positive and indicated that Member States had legally transposed 
and  implemented  the  requirements  on  places  of  refuge.  However,  some  points  of  concern 
were raised over the speed and also independence of decision making, this being due to the 
split responsibilities in certain Member States, the absence of formalised cooperation in many 
of  the  EU's  neighbouring  coastal  States  and  the  gaps  in  the  existing  compensation 
mechanisms. These concerns were addressed when the Directive was revised, in the context 
of the 3rd maritime safety package, through the new Articles 20, 20a, 20b and 20c. 

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Conclusions  of  the  Transport,  Telecommunications  and  Energy  Council,  Brussels,  5  –  6  December 
2002 on the identification of places of refuge 

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The Commission submitted to the European Parliament and Council in April 2005 the study 
on  potential  measures  at  Community  level  aimed  at  facilitating  the  recovery  of,  and 
compensation for, costs and damage incurred for the accommodation of ships in distress.  

The main conclusion of the study is that the liability and compensation rules should not have 
the effect of discouraging the accommodation of ships in distress by entailing sizable financial 
risks for the coastal State. The existing legal  framework does  not adequately live up to this 
standard. 

The  rapid  ratification  of  the  existing  IMO  pollution  liability  conventions,  in  particular  the 
HNS Convention, by all coastal Member States was pointed out as a method which would be 
both effective and coherent with current EU policy. 

The  question  of  the  places  of  refuge  will  be  further  evaluated  by  the  Commission  in  the 
context  of  the  implementation  of  the  new  provisions  of  the  Directive  mentioned  above  and 
more particularly of the national plans for the accommodation of ships in need of assistance 
drawn  up  by  Member  States.  Under  the  new  Article  20d  of  the  Directive,  the  Commission 
shall  report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  by  end  2011  on  the  existing 
mechanisms within Member States for the compensation of potential economic loss suffered 
by a port or a body as a result of accommodating a ship in need of assistance.  

5. 

CONCLUSIONS 

5.1. 

Outcome of the implementing actions 

The  implementation  of  the  Directive  and  the  development  of  the  Community  vessel  traffic 
monitoring system began in 2002. It has required a lot of legislative and technical work and 
substantial financial resources at Member States and EU level. As a result of this work, the 
Directive  is  transposed  into  the  national  legislations  and  the  Community  vessel  traffic 
monitoring and information system SafeSeaNet is fully established and operational. 

The  Member  States  reports  on  the  full  implementation  of  the  Directive  and  the  available 
EMSA  inspection  reports  support  a  general  impression  of  the  Directive  being  substantially 
implemented. Minor legal, technical and operational shortcomings and findings pointed out in 
the reports will be addressed by the Commission in due course.  

The SafeSeaNet system gives participating countries rapid access to all important information 
on the movements of ships in European waters, on dangerous or polluting cargoes on board, 
such as oil or chemical products and on ships posing potential risk to the safety of shipping 
and  the  environment.  All  22  coastal  Member  States  as  well  as  Norway  and  Iceland  are 
connected through their national systems to the central SafeSeaNet system.  

According  to  the  EMSA  data  quality  report  there  are  still  some  technical  problems  in  the 
electronic  data  exchange  and  other  means,  such  as  telephone  facsimile  still  being  used  for 
sending some types of reports. Out of the 22 coastal Member States, 10 were transmitting all 
five required report types (port call, hazmat, ship position (AIS), Mandatory Ship Reporting 
(MRS) notifications and incident reports) electronically to SafeSeaNet in the period January-
June  2010.  Most  of  the  12  Member  States  that  did  not  report  fully,  were  failing  to  transmit 
incident reports. 

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The  performance  of  SafeSeaNet  is  addressed  both  in  the  SafeSeaNet  High  Level  Steering 
Group  and  in  the  relevant  EMSA  expert  group  with  the  aim  to  solve  the  few  remaining 
shortcomings. The full electronic data exchange had to be in place by 30 November 2010, in 
line with the transposition date of Directive 2009/17/EC, amending Directive 2002/59/EC and 
the Commission is currently evaluating the situation with the assistance of EMSA. 

5.2. 

Impact  on  maritime  safety,  efficiency  of  maritime  transport  and  pollution 
prevention 

The  real  time  information  on  ships  and  hazardous  cargoes  in  European  waters  through 
SafeSeaNet  has  improved  the  capabilities  for  decision  making  by,  the  cooperation  between 
and the rescue and response ability by the Member States relevant authorities. 

In  several  Member  States  the  tasks  related  to  the  implementation  of  the  Directive  are  dealt 
with  by  more  than  one  authority.  In  general  the  competent  authorities  are  Maritime 
Administrations, Ports,  Coastguard and Environment Authorities.  Member States  report that 
the  implementation  of  the  Directive  has  increased  cooperation  and  information  exchange 
between these national authorities. 

The  obligations  to  notify  information  to  other  Members  States  and  to  build  shore  based 
installations for receiving AIS information has led to improved cooperation of authorities at 
regional level, e.g. in the framework of regional AIS servers. 

According  to  the  EMSA  Maritime  Accident  Review  2009,  the  number  of  accidents  in  EU 
waters has significantly decreased. The number of vessels involved in accidents in EU waters 
was 626 in 2009 compared to 726 in 2007. The number of seafarers who lost their lives also 
decreased from 82 in 2007 to 52 in 2009. No major oil spill has occurred in the last 7 years.  

5.3. 

Future developments 

The implementation of the third Maritime Safety Package will further improve the monitoring 
of vessel traffic in European waters and the data exchange and cooperation between maritime 
authorities.  The  package  incorporates  international  requirements  on  the  use  of  long-range 
identification and tracking of ships (LRIT), as well as the European LRIT Data Centre in the 
EU  legislation  and  introduces  the  use  of  AIS  on  the  fishing  vessels.  At  the  same  time 
technical  developments  are  opening  up  new  possibilities  to  further  develop  the  monitoring 
systems.  The  data  exchange  pursuant  to  the  third  Maritime  Safety  Package,  especially 
Directive  2009/17/EC  and  Directive  2009/16/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council of 23 April 2009 on port State control6 will have a significant impact on SafeSeaNet. 
Further  evolution  of  SafeSeaNet  will  make  the  data  exchange  more  effective  and  offer 
possibilities  for  even  more  comprehensive  monitoring  activities  and  cooperation  between 
authorities. A concrete example of this evolution is the "Blue Belt" concept and the associated 
pilot  project,  supported  by  the  Transport  Council  of  December  2010,  which  aims  at 
facilitating  intra–EU  shipping  minimising  administrative  formalities.  Core  element  in  this 
concept  is  the  use  of  the  existing  maritime  transport  monitoring  capabilities,  notably 
SafeSeaNet. 

In the framework of the EU Maritime Transport Policy the e-Maritime initiative aims at using 
advanced information and communication systems to support working and doing business in 

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the maritime sector. It will focus on promoting interoperability of systems used by maritime 
authorities,  ports  and  industry.  The  e-Maritime  initiative  will  build  on  existing  systems;  the 
most central of these is SafeSeaNet.  

The  integrated  maritime  surveillance  initiative  in  the  framework  of  the  Integrated  Maritime 
Policy  aims  at  creating  a  common  information  sharing  environment  by  interlinking  user 
communities, including the military. In this cross-sectoral initiative, SafeSeaNet  will have a 
key role by providing data from the maritime transport sector. 

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