Ingangsdatum:
01-01-1996
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION,Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community
and in particular Article 84 (2) thereof,
Having regard to the
proposal from the Commission (1),
Having regard to the opinion of
the Economic and Social Committee (2),
Acting in accordance with
the procedure referred to in Article 189c of the Treaty (3),
Whereas in its resolution of 8 June 1993 on a common policy on
safe seas, the Council has set the objective of removing all substandard vessels from
Community waters and has given priority to Community action to secure the effective and
uniform implementation of international rules by elaborating common standards for
classification societies (4);
Whereas safety and pollution
prevention at sea may be effectively enhanced by strictly applying international
conventions, codes and resolutions while furthering the objective of freedom to provide
services;
Whereas the control of compliance of ships with the
uniform international standards for safety and prevention of pollution of the seas is
the responsibility of flag and port States;
Whereas Member States
are responsible for the issuing of international certificates for safety and pollution
provided for under conventions such as Solas 74, Load Lines 66 and Marpol 73/78, and for
the implementation of the provisions thereof;
Whereas in
compliance with such conventions all Member States may authorize to a various extent
technical organizations for the certification of such compliance and may delegate the
issue of the relevant safety certificates;
Whereas worldwide a
large number of the existing classification societies do not ensure either adequate
implementation of the rules or reliability when acting on behalf of national
administrations as they do not have adequate structures and experience to be relied upon
and to enable them to carry out their duties in a highly professional manner;
Whereas the objective of submitting classification societies to
adequate standards cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States acting
individually and can be better achieved by the Community;
Whereas
the appropriate way to act is by means of a Council Directive laying down minimum
criteria for recognition of organizations, while leaving recognition itself, the means
of enforcement, and the implementation of the Directive to the Member States;
Whereas EN 45004 and EN 29001 standards combined with
International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) standards constitute an
adequate guarantee of performance quality of organizations;
Whereas the issue of the Cargo Ship Safety Radio Certificate may
be entrusted to private bodies having sufficient expertise and qualified personnel;
Whereas organizations wishing to be recognized for the purpose of
this Directive must submit to the Member States complete information and evidence of
their compliance with the minimum criteria, and the Member States must notify to the
Commission and to the other Member States the organizations they have recognized;
Whereas a three-year recognition may be granted by the Commission
for organizations which do not meet the criteria fixing the minimum number and tonnage
of classed vessels and minimum number of exclusive surveyors laid down in the Annex but
meet all the other criteria; whereas such organizations should be granted an extension
of recognition after the period of three years provided they continue to meet the same
criteria; whereas the effects of the three-year recognition should be limited to the
requesting Member States, for that period only;
Whereas the
establishment of the internal market involves free circulation of services so that
organizations meeting a set of common criteria which guarantee their professionalism and
reliability cannot be prevented from supplying their services within the Community
provided a Member State has decided to delegate such statutory duties; whereas such a
Member State may nevertheless restrict the number of organizations it authorizes in
accordance with its needs based on objective and transparent grounds, subject to control
exercised by the Commission through the comitology procedures;
Whereas the implementation of the principle of freedom to provide
ship inspection and survey services could be gradual, but not beyond prescribed time
limits;
Whereas a tighter involvement of the national
administrations in ship surveys and in the issue of the related certificates is
necessary to ensure full compliance with the international safety rules even if the
Member States rely upon organizations outside their administration for carrying out
statutory duties; whereas it is appropriate, therefore, to establish a close working
relationship between the administrations and the organizations, which may require that
the organization has a local representation on the territory of the Member State on
behalf of which it performs its duties;
Whereas a committee of a
regulatory nature should be established in order to assist the Commission in its effort
to ensure effective application of the existing maritime safety and environmental
standards while taking account of the national ratification procedures;
Whereas the Commission must act according to the procedure laid
down in Article 13 in order to take due account of progress in international fora and to
update the minimum criteria;
Whereas on the basis of the
information provided in accordance with Article 11 by the Member States about the
performance of the organizations working on their behalf, the Commission will decide
whether it will request Member States to withdraw the recognition of recognized
organizations which no longer fulfil the set of common minimum criteria, acting in
accordance with the procedure of Article 13;
Whereas Member States
must nevertheless be left the possibility of suspending their authorization to an
organization for reasons of serious danger to safety or environment; whereas the
Commission must rapidly decide in accordance with the procedure referred to above
whether it is necessary to overrule such national measure;
Whereas
each Member State should periodically assess the performance of the organizations
working on its behalf and provide the Commission and all the other Member States with
precise information related to such performance;
Whereas Member
States, as port authorities, are required to enhance safety and prevention of pollution
in Community waters through priority inspection of vessels carrying certificates of
organizations which do not fulfil the common criteria, thereby ensuring no more
favourable treatment to vessels flying the flag of a third State;
Whereas the procedure by which the committee will decide should be
Procedure III A of Article 2 of Council Decision 87/373/EEC of 13 July 1987 laying down
the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (5);
Whereas classification societies must update and enforce their
technical standards in order to harmonize safety rules and ensure uniform implementation
of international rules within the Community;
Whereas at present
there are not uniform international standards to which all ships must conform at the
building stage and during their entire life, as regards hull, machinery and electrical
and control installations; whereas such standards may be fixed according to the rules of
recognized classification societies or to equivalent standards to be decided by the
national administrations in accordance with the procedure laid down in Council Directive
83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in
the field of technical standards and regulations (6),
(1) OJ No C 167, 18. 6. 1993, p. 13.
(2) OJ No
C 34, 2. 2. 1994, p. 14.
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament
of 9 March 1994 (OJ No C 91, 28. 3. 1994, p. 9), Council common position of 19
September 1994 (OJ No C 301, 27. 10. 1994, p. 75) and Decision of the European
Parliament of 16 November 1994 (not yet published in the Official Journal).
(4) OJ No C 271, 7. 10. 1993, p. 1.
(5) OJ
No L 197, 18. 7. 1987, p. 33.
(6) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p.
8. Directive as last amended by Directive 94/10/EC (OJ No L 100, 19. 4. 1994, p. 30).