Safety rules and standards for passenger ships

PURPOSE : to amend Directive 98/18/EC on safety regulations for ferries. CONTENT : in order to ensure harmonisation of safety regulations applying to passenger ferries operating within the EU, Council Directive 98/18/EC was adopted to apply rules equivalent to those applicable at international level in a harmonised manner also to the domestic trade. The rules translate the relevant international instruments into safety requirements for vessels operating on domestic services. These apply to all types of domestic passenger ferries, whilst taking into account their size, age and the characteristics of the sea area in which they are licensed to operate. The provisions in the directive need to be updated as follows: - insert provisions that take into account developments of international conventions and codes for maritime safety, notably the 2000 High Speed Craft Code, - simplify and improve the procedure for the definition and publication of sea areas, a procedure that is crucial for the implementation of this directive, since the safety requirements applying to a specific vessel depend on the sea area in which it operates. - introduce specific stability requirements for certain categories of ro-ro passenger ships operating on domestic services, equivalent to those in the proposed Directive for ro-ro ships on international voyages (see COD020074) and phase out ro-ro passenger ships which are not upgraded to comply with such stability requirements. - require that Member States endeavour to make all its passenger vessels, regardless of size, age and the sea area in which they operate safe and accessible for passengers with reduced mobility. This is in line with other proposals by the Commission to render other modes of transport accessible and safe for such passengers. - remove the derogation for Greece, thus simplifying the directive given the marginal impact of the derogation.�