Brussels, 24/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Every six months, cruise ships carry out a lifeboat embarkation exercise for ship crews. This is one way of continuing to enhance safety mechanisms. The process began after the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast at the beginning of the year. As part of their operational safety review, the European Cruise Council (ECC) has voluntarily introduced these measures. Cruise ship crews will therefore carry out a full lifeboat embarkation exercise where lifeboats will be lowered into the water. The president of the ECC, Manfredi Lefebvre, declared that, “the industry is determined to improve its safety performance in the short, medium and long term. I think that our approach backs the European Commission objectives for relaunching their quality maritime transport campaign within its 2009-2018 maritime policy”. (MD/trans.fl)