Marco Meli, Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), explains how they work with the European Commission to maintain safety and implement EU legislation.
For Europe, maritime transport has been a catalyst for economic development and prosperity throughout its history. Sea transport enables trade and communication between all European countries. It ensures the security of energy, food and basic commodity supplies and provides the main means of European imports and exports to the rest of the world. Nearly 90% of the EU’s external shipping trade is transported by sea. Short sea freight represents 40% of intra-EU trades in terms of tonne kilometres. The quality of life on the islands and peripheral marine areas depends on good maritime transport services. Every year, more than 400 million passengers board and disembark at European ports. In general, marine industries are an important source of employment and income for the European economy.
The maritime industry is crucial to Europe in many ways, and the health of this industry depends on maintaining the highest possible safety standards. EU countries have made every effort to ensure that their flag fleets have a good safety record and to apply high standards to other vessels by inspecting them when they enter EU ports. Overall, Europe’s maritime safety record is good, but everyone can remember occasions when things went disastrously wrong; The names Erika, Prestige, Estonia and, more recently, Costa Concordia are familiar to everyone.
Working with the European Commission to maintain safety and implement EU legislation
The creation of EMSA came within a package of EU legislation developed in response to the Erika incident. The agency’s Constituent Regulation No. 1 states that it is “for the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform and effective standard of maritime safety and security and preventing and responding to pollution from ships as well as responding to marine pollution caused by oil and gas installations.”
The agency’s tasks are defined in the founding regulations and reflect the added value that can be achieved through cooperation between EU countries. The basis of this cooperation lies in a range of EU legislation covering a range of safety issues, such as EU recognition of classification societies that survey ships on behalf of Member States; Coordination of ship inspections in EU ports; Seafarer training standards, certification activities and various technical standards such as those for domestic passenger ships and ro-ro ferries operating from EU ports.
The Agency assists the Commission in preparations for the modernization and development of these legal codes and their effective implementation, in particular by visiting Member States and inspecting classification societies and third countries that train and certify seafarers. The results of a series of such visits and inspections are analyzed across all areas to identify any potential improvements to the legislation.
In addition, the Agency works with the Commission and Member States to organize relevant training activities, provide complementary resources for pollution response, and provide technical assistance to contribute to the work of the technical bodies of IMO, ILO and the Paris Memorandum. Understanding on Port State Control (‘Paris Memorandum of Understanding’), in relation to matters falling within the competence of the European Union.
At an operational level, EMSA has developed and operates information systems such as the EU Long-Range Identification and Tracking Data Center and the EU Maritime Information and Exchange System (SafeSeaNet) which can provide vital vessel data and tracking information for use in emergency situations or facilitate measures against piracy or other threats. Of intentional illegal acts. The agency is also helping to better identify and respond to illegal discharges by using the European satellite oil monitoring service (CleanSeaNet) to monitor the extent of this pollution and its environmental impact. The Agency analyzes safety investigation reports prepared by Member States to determine value added at Union level in terms of lessons learned, and provides reliable and comparable statistics, information and data to enable the Commission and Member States to take the necessary steps to improve their procedures, and to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of existing measures.
Challenges involved in maintaining effective levels of marine safety
Shipping is an international business, and ships visiting the EU are often flagged in countries outside the EU and are subject to the legal system of the flag country. EMSA activities help the Commission and EU Member States to ensure that all ships visiting or operating in EU waters can expect uniformly high standards to be applied. Illegal ship and discharge monitoring activities, the development and hosting of systems such as THETIS, which is used to coordinate port state inspections, and to contribute to the development of cost-effective standards at the international level, all help achieve this goal.
1 Regulation (EC) No. 1406/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a European Maritime Authority
Safety Agency, as amended
Marco Meli
CEO
European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)
www.emsa.europa.eu
