During the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on Tuesday 21 March, member states adopted, without debate, a general approach on revising the directive for registering people travelling aboard passenger ships. In this way, they therefore introduce legislation on the digitalisation of the system proposed by the European Commission.
In June 2016, the European Commission (see EUROPE 11566) proposed revising the directive on the registration of people travelling on passenger ships (directive 98/41/EC) – which is now already almost 20 years old. The Council therefore maintained the two means of communication of the data included in the European Commission proposal: a one stop shop at a national level and an automatic identification system.
The aim is to guarantee immediate access to passengers’ electronic data to the national authorities.
This is because the current situation appears obsolete, given the technological developments over the last two decades. Currently, passenger data is still in the hands of the maritime company in charge of registration. In the event of an emergency, the authorities responsible for national search and rescue at sea operations contact the agent responsible for the registration of passengers within the company and they therefore remain in charge of this data availability.
Nationality added. In its general approach (article 5 of the proposal proposition), the Council intends to add the nationality of passengers in addition to name, date of birth and gender. The introduction of nationality is primarily motivated by a wish to make assistance to victims and their families, more efficient.
Transposition deadline extended. The Council has extended the directive transposition deadline by one to three years (article 3). In an effort to avoid introducing additional administrative charges, the Council also wants to introduce an exemption for member states that do not have maritime ports or ships flying their national flags.
European Commission objection. The Commission expressed three reservations: the ten-year transition period enabling member states to continue to communicate the number of people on board and personal data registered with the company agent in charge of registering passengers or a Company system set up on land;- on the geographical exemption for journeys to Helgoland and Bornholm ; - the exemption for member states that do not have sea ports or ships flying their flag.
The European Parliament has not yet reached a position on the text for which the rapporteur is Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (ALDE, Spain). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)