The MEPs of the European Parliament's Transport Committee voted on Thursday 10 January in favour of two draft reports aimed at anticipating the consequences of Brexit on transport.
CEF. The first report, written by Karima Delli (Greens/EFA), chair of the European Parliament's Transport Committee, concerns support for the implementation of the core network of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Regulation 1316/2013 on the EIM provides, inter alia, that aid may be granted to support maritime transport links between Ireland and the United Kingdom. In order to ensure that the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU does not significantly affect Ireland, the Commission proposed, on the 1st of August, to review the routes linking with Ireland that are eligible for CEF funding.
Several Members, most of them French, suggested amendments and compromise amendments to particularly support French ports and include them in these future routes that would be eligible for CEF aid.
Despite the Commission's disapproval on several issues, MEPs approved these points.
Ship inspection. The other draft report adopted on Brexit, drafted by Isabella de Monte (S&D, Italy), concerns the revision of Regulation 391/2009 on ship inspection and surveys.
The purpose of the Commission's proposal was to give organisations the possibility to be recognised at the 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 ships flying the flag of Member States (EU27) that have authorised the organisations in question to carry out regulatory inspection, survey and certification of ships on their behalf.
Today, a Member State, known as the "initiating State", submits an initial application for the organisation's recognition and, once this recognition has been obtained, assessments of the organisation are carried out every two years jointly by the Commission and the Member State. 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). 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." Members of Parliament supported this proposal. Negotiations with the Romanian Presidency of the Council will start, as the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) gave it a mandate to do so on 14 November last (see EUROPE 12137). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)