Representatives of the European Parliament and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union reached on Tuesday 7 February inter-institutional agreement in mid-February on the establishment of a European Maritime Single Window environment, following a second interinstitutional negotiating meeting (‘trilogues’).
“The compromise reached in trilogue with the Romanian Presidency of the Council and the European Parliament on establishing of a European Maritime single window means concrete benefits in terms of reduced administrative burdens for operators!" cheered Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport Policy, after this final trilogue.
This second and short meeting echoed the European Commission's proposal of last May (see EUROPE 12022). After defining their negotiating position (see EUROPE 12151, 12170), the Council and the European Parliament had already exchanged views for the first time on 21 January last (see EUROPE 12176).
According to our information, few major issues remained to be resolved after several issues were compromised at a technical meeting last week. Among the initial political disagreements, it should be noted that the establishment of a common access point interface of the EU for an optional or voluntary filing point for declarants for routing system-to-system data to the harmonised reporting interfaces of the respective single windows, as requested by Parliament, has not been recorded. However, a common service should be integrated by the Commission into its interface.
Parliament also wanted the harmonised interface developed by the Commission to be technologically neutral. This approach has not been preserved, but the compromise indicates that it must be open to new technologies.
On the governance side of the national maritime single points of contact, the parties agreed on the obligation for Member States to designate a national authority to act as coordinator of the point of contact, giving it several responsibilities.
In addition, as recommended by Parliament, the activities of the European Maritime Safety Agency in the implementation of the text should be financed.
Finally, it should be noted that information on the departure and arrival of ships should be public, with the exception of information on ships carrying sensitive cargo. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)