The Member States' ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) on Wednesday,14 November, gave the Austrian Presidency of the EU Council a mandate to negotiate the European Commission's proposal for a Regulation on the revision of Regulation 391/2009 on ship inspection and survey in the context of Brexit.
This proposal, dated 1 August 2018, was intended to give the possibility to organisations recognised at EU level by the Commission, on the basis of an initial request from the United Kingdom, to continue their activities in the EU after Brexit. Indeed, the loss of recognition by these organisations could have a negative impact on the flags of the Member States (EU27) that have authorised the organisations in question to carry out regulatory inspection, survey and certification of ships on their behalf.
Under the current legislative framework, a Member State, known as the "initiating State", submits an initial application for the organisation's recognition and, once this recognition has been obtained, evaluations of the organisation are conducted every two years by the Commission and the Member State jointly. Today, two organisations are subject to this procedure on the basis of a request from the United Kingdom and are engaged in authorisation agreements with the majority of Member States (EU27).
In order to avoid legal uncertainty that could result from the United Kingdom's exit from the EU, the Commission proposed that the biennial evaluations should be conducted jointly by the Commission and the "Member State(s)" that have authorised the bodies in question, rather than by the "Member State that submitted the request for recognition".
The EU Council's Maritime Transport Working Group has taken up this issue in recent weeks and national experts reached an agreement on 26 October. The core of the European Commission's proposal has been maintained. However, Member States would like the Commission to facilitate the work of Member States under the conditions they must fulfil to be a flag State, by "identifying and exchanging good practices that may be used by Member States on a voluntary basis".
On the European Parliament's side, draft report by Isabella De Monte (S&D, Italy) on the subject was published last week. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)