22.9.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 234/51
(11)
The rules laid down in this Regulation should apply in a non-discriminatory manner to ships regardless of their flag.
For reasons of coherence with Union and international rules in the area of maritime transport, and in order to limit the administrative burden, this Regulation should apply to ships with a gross tonnage (GT) above 5 000, but should not apply to warships, naval auxiliaries, fish-catching or fish-processing ships, wooden ships of a primitive build, ships not propelled by mechanical means, or government ships used for non-commercial purposes.
Although ships above 5 000 GT represent only approximately 55 % of all ships calling at ports under Regulation (EU) 2015/757 of the European Parliament and of the Council (13), they are responsible for approximately 90 % of CO2 emissions from the maritime transport sector.
The Commission should regularly reassess the situation, with a view to eventually extending the scope of this Regulation to ships below 5 000 GT.
(12)
Member States which have no maritime ports on their territory, no accredited verifier, no ships flying their flag that fall under the scope of this Regulation, and which are not an administering state within the meaning of this Regulation do not need to take any action concerning the respective requirements under this Regulation for as long as those circumstances are present.
(13)
Given the increased costs for ships which comply with the requirements of this Regulation, the absence of a global measure exacerbates the risk of circumvention.
Evasive port calls to ports outside of the Union and relocation of transhipment activities to ports outside of the Union will not only diminish the environmental benefits of internalising the cost of emissions from maritime transport activities but may lead to additional emissions due to the additional distance travelled by ships in order to evade the application of this Regulation.
It is therefore appropriate to exclude from the concept of ‘port of call’ certain stops at non-Union ports.
That exclusion should target ports in the Union’s vicinity where the risk of evasion is most significant.
A limit of 300 nautical miles from a port under the jurisdiction of a Member State constitutes a proportionate response to evasive behaviour, balancing the additional burden and the risk of evasion.
Moreover, the exclusion from the concept of port of call should only target stops by containerships at certain non-Union ports, where the transhipment of containers accounts for most container traffic.
For such shipments, the risk of evasion, in the absence of mitigating measures, also consists in a shift of port hub to ports outside the Union, aggravating the effects of the evasion.
To ensure the proportionality and equal treatment of the global measure, account should be taken of measures in third countries that are equivalent to this Regulation.
(14)
In order to take into account the specific situation of island regions, as underlined by Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and the need to preserve connectivity between islands and peripheral regions of the Union with central regions of the Union, temporary exemptions should be allowed for voyages performed by passenger ships other than cruise passenger ships between a port of call under the jurisdiction of a Member State and a port of call under the jurisdiction of the same Member State located on an island with fewer than 200 000 permanent residents.
(15)
Taking into account the special characteristics and constraints of the outermost regions of the Union, in particular their remoteness and insularity, special consideration should be given to preserving their accessibility and efficient connectivity by maritime transport.
Therefore, for ships falling under the scope of this Regulation only half of the energy used on voyages departing from or arriving at a port of call located in an outermost region should be included in the scope of this Regulation.
For the same reasons, temporary exemptions should be allowed for voyages between a port of call located in an outermost region and another port of call located in an outermost region, and in respect of the energy used by ships during their stay within the ports of call of the corresponding outermost regions.
(13) Regulation (EU) 2015/757 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 on the monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport, and amending Directive 2009/16/EC (OJ L 123, 19.5.2015, p. 55).