Specific stability requirements for ro-ro passenger ships (codification)

PURPOSE: codification of Directive 2003/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on specific stability requirements for ro-ro passenger ships.

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: in the interest of clarity and rationality, the purpose of this proposal is to codify Directive 2003/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 April 2003 on specific stability requirements for ro-ro passenger ships. The new directive will supersede the various acts incorporated in it; it fully preserves the content of the acts being codified and hence does no more than bring them together with only such formal adaptations as are required by the codification exercise itself.

CONTENT: the purpose of this Directive is to lay down a uniform level of specific stability requirements for ro-ro passenger ships, which will improve the survivability of this type of vessel in case of collision damage and provide a high level of safety for the passengers and the crew. It seeks to ensure, as far as possible, consistency with the applicable international standards for the stability of damaged passenger ships recently updated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) under its 2020 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Convention).

Scope

This Directive will apply to all ro-ro passenger ships operating to or from a port of a Member State on a regular service, regardless of their flag, when engaged on international voyages.

Each Member State, in its capacity as Port State, will ensure that ro-ro passenger ships flying the flag of a State which is not a Member State comply fully with the requirements of this Directive before they may be engaged on voyages in regular service from or to ports of that Member State.

Member States which do not have seaports and which have no ro-ro passenger ships flying their flag that fall within the scope of this Directive may derogate from the provisions of this Directive.

Sea areas

Port States will establish and keep updated a list of sea areas crossed by ro-ro passenger ships operating on regular service to or from their ports as well as the corresponding values of significant wave heights in these areas. The list will be published in a public database available on the internet site of the competent maritime authority.

Specific stability requirements

Without prejudice to the application of Directive 2009/45/EC, new ro-ro passenger ships certified to carry more than 1 350 persons on board will comply with the specific stability requirements laid down in Chapter II-1, Part B, of SOLAS 2020.

Certificates

All new and existing ro-ro passenger ships flying the flag of a Member State will carry a certificate confirming compliance with the specific stability requirements. For ro-ro passenger ships complying with the specific stability requirements laid down in section A of Annex I, the certificate will indicate the significant wave height up to which the ship can satisfy the specific stability requirements. The certificate will remain valid as long as the ro-ro passenger ship operates in an area with the same or a lower value of significant wave height.

Each Member State acting in its capacity as Port State will accept certificates issued by a third country certifying that a ro-ro passenger ship complies with the specific stability requirements laid down in this Directive.

Seasonal and other short-time period operations

If a company operating a regular service on a year-round basis wishes to introduce additional ro-ro passenger ships to operate for a shorter period on that service, it will notify the competent authority of the Port State or States not later than one month before said ships are operated on that service.

Re-evaluation

The Commission will evaluate the implementation of this Directive and submit the results of the evaluation to the European Parliament and the Council by 5 June 2033. The information will be based on the communication of data relating to any new passenger ro-ro ship certified to carry 1 350 persons or less for a regular service, in accordance with the stability requirements set out in this Directive.