96/710/EC: Commission Decision of 27 November 1996 in application, at the request of Germany, of Article 5 (4) of Council Directive 93/75/EEC of 13 September 1993 concerning minimum requirements for vessels bound for or leaving Community ports and carrying dangerous or polluting goods (The German text alone is authentic)

COMMISSION DECISION of 27 November 1996 in application, at the request of Germany, of Article 5 (4) of Council Directive 93/75/EEC of 13 September 1993 concerning minimum requirements for vessels bound for or leaving Community ports and carrying dangerous or polluting goods (The German text alone is authentic) (96/710/EC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Directive 93/75/EEC of 13 September 1993 concerning minimum requirements for vessels bound for or leaving Community ports and carrying dangerous or polluting goods (1), as amended by Commission Directive 96/39/EC (2), and in particular Article 5 (4) thereof,
Whereas, in order to limit the risks of serious accidents at sea and to reduce the resulting damage, Article 5 of Directive 93/75/EEC provides that the operators of the vessels covered by the Directive shall notify the information listed in Annex I thereto to the competent authorities of the Member State concerned; whereas Article 5 (4) authorizes the Member States to exempt regular scheduled services of less than one hour's crossing time from such notification requirement and allows the Commission to agree to a reasonable extension of this period on request from a Member State;
Whereas, the information given by Germany in its request of 12 April 1994, on the basis of which scheduled services between the mainland and East Frisia Islands were exempted by Decision of the Commission (3) from the application of Article 5 (4) of Directive 93/75/EEC, has been completed by a communication dated 23 February 1996 concerning regular services between the mainland and North Frisia Islands; whereas in this communication, Germany asked the Commission to agree to an exemption for the services operated between the ports of Dagebüll to Wittdün (Amrum Island) and Schlüttsiel to Hallig Langeness, which have crossing times of two hours;
Whereas the appropriate measures have been taken by the German competent authorities to ensure a high level of safety of navigation and protection of the marine environment in the area; whereas these measures include traffic surveillance and the provision of safety information to vessels, as well as the obligation to comply with local navigation rules;
Whereas the vessels in question provide local services between the islands and the mainland; whereas the risks of accident and marine pollution are limited owing to the scarce maritime traffic in the area and the small quantities of polluting goods on board the vessels;
Whereas the information required by Annex I to the Directive is available at any time from the operators or captains;
Whereas, in the circumstances, it is justifiable to accept the request from Germany to exempt the regular scheduled services referred to above from the application of Article 5 (2) and (3) of Directive 93/75/EEC,