Safety management of roll-on/roll-off (Ro-ro) passenger ferries

The European Parliament approved this proposal for a regulation subject to the following amendments: - the new safety rules should not apply definitively until 1 July 1997 for small companies operating one or more roll-on roll-off ferries offering a regular service in sheltered waters exclusively between ports situated in the same Member State; - Greek companies offering a regular service exclusively between Greek ports should not need to come into line with the new rules until 31 December 1997. For all other companies, the safety requirements in the regulation should apply as of 1 July 1996. At the same time, the European Parliament defined the terms "seagoing vessel" and "regular service": - seagoing vessels are ships other than those sailing exclusively on internal waters or in the vicinity of "sheltered waters" (i.e. areas in which the annual probability of the significant wave height exceeding 1.5 metres is less than 10% and in which a ro-ro ferry is at no time more than six nautical miles from a place where shipwrecked persons can land); - a regular service should be understood to mean transportation effected by passenger ro-ro ferries between the same two points at least on the basis of a published timetable or which is regular enough to give the impression that it is a regular service. Parliament also clarified that the safety management certificate would be valid for 5 years from its date of issue, subject to annual verification of the document of conformity (which is likewise valid for 5 years). Finally, Parliament added that this regulation should be evaluated after 3 years in force and stated that it did not in any way change international or national regulations governing the liability of company agents guilty of certain acts of negligence.�