Reporting formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States

The Council reached a general approach, pending the European Parliament's position at first reading, on a draft directive on the reporting formalities to be fulfilled by ships arriving in or departing from EU ports in maritime transport. The proposed legislation is to replace directive 2002/6/EC on the same subject.

The adoption of the draft directive is subject to the ordinary legislative procedure under the Lisbon treaty (that is, co-decision procedure with the European Parliament). The Parliament started its examination of the text this autumn.

The focus on electronic data transmission was agreed during discussions in the Council working party, since the broader approach originally proposed by the Commission was found lacking in clarity. However, the draft directive as it stands also contains a more general provision in favour of further harmonisation of reporting formalities on national and EU level.

As the directive does not create new reporting formalities, ships currently exempted from such obligations will remain outside its scope. Moreover, countries without any sea port will not be required to transpose the directive in respect of ports.

The proposal is among a number of measures announced by the Commission in a communication in January 2009 (see COM(2009)0010) with a view to creating a European maritime transport area without barriers.