Ingangsdatum:
17-11-2004
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Community, and in particular Article 80(2) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Economic and Social
Committee(2),
Having consulted the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251
of the Treaty(3),
Whereas:
(1) Within the framework of the common
transport policy further measures should be taken to improve safety in maritime
transport of passengers.
(2) The Community
wishes to avoid by all appropriate means shipping accidents involving ro-ro passenger
ships and resulting in loss of life.
(3) The
survivability of ro-ro passenger ships following collision damage, as determined by
their damage stability standard, is an essential factor for the safety of passengers and
crew and is particularly relevant for search and rescue operations; the most dangerous
problem for the stability of a ro-ro passenger ship with an enclosed ro-ro deck,
following collision damage, is the one posed by the effect of a build up of significant
amounts of water on that deck.
(4) Persons
using ro-ro passenger ships and crew employed on board such vessels throughout the
Community should have the right to demand the same high level of safety regardless of
the area in which ships operate.
(5) In view of
the internal market dimension of maritime transport of passengers, action at Community
level is the most effective way of establishing a common minimum level of safety for
ships throughout the Community.
(6) Action at
Community level is the best way to ensure the harmonised enforcement of principles
agreed on within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), thus avoiding
distortions of competition between the operators of ro-ro passenger ships operating in
the Community.
(7) General stability
requirements for ro-ro passenger ships in damaged condition were established at
international level by the 1990 Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS 90) Conference and were
included in Regulation II-1/B/8 of the SOLAS Convention (SOLAS 90 standard). These
requirements are applicable in the entire Community owing to the direct application to
international voyages of the SOLAS Convention and the application to domestic voyages of
Council Directive 98/18/EC of 17 March 1998 on safety rules and standards for passenger
ships(4).
(8) The SOLAS 90 damage stability
standard implicitly includes the effect of water entering the ro-ro deck in a sea state
of the order of 1,5 m significant wave height.
(9) IMO Resolution 14 of the 1995 SOLAS
Conference, allowed IMO members to conclude regional agreements if they consider that
prevailing sea conditions and other local conditions require specific stability
requirements in a designated area.
(10) Eight
northern European countries, including seven Member States, agreed in Stockholm on 28
February 1996 to introduce a higher stability standard for ro-ro passenger ships in
damaged condition in order to take into account the effect of water accumulation on the
ro-ro deck and to enable the ship to survive in more severe states than the SOLAS 90
standard, up to 4 m significant wave heights.
(11) Under this agreement, known as the
Stockholm Agreement, the specific stability standard is directly related to the sea area
in which the vessel operates and more particularly to the significant wave height
recorded in the area of operation; the significant wave height of the area where the
ship operates determines the height of water on the car deck that would arise following
the occurrence of accidental damage.
(12) At
the conclusion of the Conference at which the Stockholm Agreement was adopted, the
Commission noted that the Agreement was not applicable in other parts of the Community
and announced its intention to examine the prevailing local conditions under which ro-ro
passenger ships sail in all European waters and to take appropriate initiatives.
(13) The Council entered a statement in the
minutes of the 2074th Council meeting of 17 March 1998 stressing the need to ensure the
same level of safety for all passenger ferries operating in similar conditions, whether
on international or on domestic voyages.
(14)
In its Resolution of 5 October 2000 on the sinking of the Greek ferry "Samina"(5), the
European Parliament expressly stated that it awaited the evaluation by the Commission of
the effectiveness of the Stockholm Agreement and other measures for improving the
stability and safety of passenger ships.
(15)
Following an expert study by the Commission, the wave height conditions in south
European waters were found to be similar to those in the north. While meteorological
conditions may be generally more favourable in the south, the stability standard
determined in the context of the Stockholm Agreement is based solely on the significant
wave height parameter and the way this influences the accumulation of water on the ro-ro
deck.
(16) The application of Community safety
standards regarding the stability requirements for ro-ro passenger ships is essential
for the safety of these vessels and has to be part of the common maritime safety
framework.
(17) In the interests of improving
safety and avoiding distortion of competition, the common safety standards regarding
stability should apply to all ro-ro passenger ships, regardless of the flag that they
fly, providing regular services to or from a port in the Member States on international
voyages.
(18) The safety of ships is primarily
the responsibility of flag States and therefore each Member State should ensure
compliance with the safety requirements applicable to the ro-ro passenger ships flying
the flag of that Member State.
(19) Member
States should also be addressed in their capacity as host States. The responsibilities
exercised in that capacity are based on specific port State responsibilities that are
fully in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
(20) The specific stability requirements
introduced by this Directive should be based on a method, as set out in the Annexes to
the Stockholm Agreement, which calculates the height of water on the ro-ro deck
following collision damage in relation to two basic parameters: the ship's residual
freeboard and the significant wave height in the sea area where the ship operates.
(21) Member States should determine and publicise the significant
wave heights in the sea areas crossed by ro-ro passenger ships on regular service to or
from their ports. For international routes the significant wave heights should, wherever
applicable and possible, be established in agreement between the States at both ends of
the route. Significant wave heights for seasonal operation in the same sea areas may
also be determined.
(22) Every ro-ro passenger
ship engaged in voyages within the scope of this Directive should fulfil the stability
requirements in relation to the significant wave heights determined for its area of
operation. It should carry a certificate of compliance issued by the Administration of
the flag State, which should be accepted by all other Member States.
(23) The SOLAS 90 Standard provides a level
of safety equivalent to the specific stability requirements established by this
Directive for ships operating in sea areas where the significant wave height is equal to
or less than 1,5 m.
(24) In view of the
structural modifications that the existing ro-ro passenger ships may need to undergo in
order to comply with the specific stability requirements, those requirements should be
introduced over a period of years in order to allow to the part of the industry affected
sufficient time to comply: to that end, a phasing-in timetable for existing ships should
be provided. This phasing-in timetable should not affect the enforcement of the specific
stability requirements in the sea areas covered by the Annexes to the Stockholm
Agreement.
(25) Article 4(1)(e) of Council
Directive 1999/35/EC of 29 April 1999 on a system of mandatory surveys for the safe
operation of regular ro-ro ferry and high-speed passenger craft services(6) provides
that host States are to check that ro-ro passenger ferries and high-speed passenger
craft comply with specific stability requirements adopted at regional level and
transposed into their national legislation, when these ships operate a service covered
by that national legislation in the region concerned.
(26) High-speed passenger craft as defined in
Regulation 1 of Chapter X of the SOLAS Convention, as amended, should not be required to
comply with the provisions of this Directive, provided that they comply entirely with
the provisions of the IMO "International code for safety of high-speed craft", as
amended.
(27) The measures necessary for the
implementation of this Directive should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision
1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing
powers conferred on the Commission(7).
(28)
Since the objective of the proposed action, namely to safeguard human life at sea by
improving the survivability of ro-ro passenger ships in the event of damage, cannot be
sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale and
effects of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt
measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of
the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that
Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that
objective,
(1) OJ C 20 E, 28.1.2003, p. 21.
(2) Opinion
delivered on 11 December 2002 (not yet published in the Official Journal).
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 7 November 2002 (not
yet published in the Official Journal), and Council Decision of 17 March 2003.
(4) OJ L 144, 15.5.1998, p. 1; Directive as last amended by
Directive 2002/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 324,
29.11.2002, p. 53).
(5) OJ C 178, 22.6.2001, p. 288.
(6) OJ L 138, 1.6.1999, p. 1. Directive as amended by Directive
2002/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.
(7) OJ
L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.