Maritime safety: standards in respect of shipping using Community ports, package Erika I

At second reading the Parliament adopted two amendments to the Council's common position. The amendment introducing certain obligations in order to assure an in depth assessment of the Port State Control performance by Member States is accepted in principle but is subject to redrafting. The amendment seeking to introduce the obligation to refuse access to Community ports for ships not in compliance with the requirements for the voyage data recorder (VDR) is accepted, but is subject to re-wording. The extension of refusal of access to categories of ships for which the carriage of the VDR is not mandatory is unacceptable. It represents a distortion of the scope of the directive, which is solely intended to verify whether the ship complies with the international requirements and not to impose indirectly additional equipment requirements. �