09/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Monday the European Parliament will examine, in first reading, a draft regulation and Directive for the creation of a "maritime safety committee" that will replace all the existing committee existing in this field. The creation of the committee should rationalise the Council's works, in this field which presently counts twelve Directives and three regulations, recalls the rapporteur, Emmanouil Bakopoulos (GUE/NGL, Greece). It will notably be responsible for defining the exceptional cases where the Member States will not be forced to automatically enforce the recent provisions from international convention (when the European legislation is stricter). Feeling that the Commission proposal contributes "towards ensuring a better follow-up of Community and international law in the chapter on maritime safety," the rapporteur simply proposes amendments to the structure and amendments that will ensure the EP's participation in the regulatory procedure.