Brussels, 22/07/2013 (Agence Europe) -At the foreign affairs ministers' meeting on Monday 22 July, the Council of the EU adopted, without debate, the inter-institutional agreement on the recasting of the directive on port state control.
An institutional agreement on the subject was reached last April. Since then, the European Parliament adopted the report of Brian Simpson (S&D, United Kingdom) on this subject at the beginning of July (see EUROPE 10880).
Amendment of directive 2009/16/EC on port state control provides for alignment of European legislation with the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2006. This lays down minimum requirements for seafarers on health, training and accommodation. The recast European directive determines what the responsibilities of the port state so that these minimum standards are observed.
The agreement reached in trialogue discussions ensures that existing European standards are not watered down and that the confidentiality of the complaints is respected so that seafarers are not intimidated when using these procedures. Amending this directive is part of a legislative package containing other texts, such as the revision of the directive on flag state control. (MD/transl.fl)