Brussels, 02/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Council will hold, on Thursday in Luxembourg, a policy debate on the second package of measures put forward by the European Commission to strengthen maritime safety in Europe, so-called "Erika II package". The first package. "Erika I", which should be adopted in July by the Parliament and Council, concentrates on the strengthening of checks on ships and "classification" companies responsible for inspections. The "Erika II" package, presented in December by the Commission, concentrates on the signalling of ships and coordination between national control authorities (see EUROPE of 7 December, P.8). The aim of the Presidency is to reach a political agreement during the Transport Council in June, but the divergences, at this stage in the debates, are not few. The Member States had already given their general impressions on the proposals during the open debate on maritime safety organised by the French Presidency during the Council last October (see EUROPE of 4 October 2000). To refine these positions, the Swedish Presidency proposed a questionnaire around the three package proposals:
Signalling - The Commission is proposing a Directive creating a system of traffic control and ship signalling, notably through a "black box". The Presidency asks the Member States: 1) whether it is necessary to impose on all ships to signal everywhere, while the technical progress would notably allow for tracing by satellite; 2) whether the "black boxes" must be imposed at the international level or European, and if there is no less costly manner to gather the data on the circumstances of an accident. During the first technical exchanges and the October debate, most of the Member States favoured the international path. The majority also had doubts over the article in the Directive that foresees that a State ban a ship from landing is the weather conditions are bad. Some Member States think that this responsibility lies with the captain. Others fear that the public responsibility be engaged also when the ship that is authorised to leave as when it has an accident and is immobilised and that an economic prejudice is noted.
Victim compensation - The Commission is proposing a regulation creating a European compensation fund, which will increase the ceiling for victim compensation of EUR 200 million foreseen by the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPCF) to EUR 1 billion. The European Fund would also enable to accelerate or anticipate the compensations, topical measure if one remembers that IOPCF only dealt with half the dossiers of the Erika one year after the tanker's sinking. The Presidency asks whether it is preferable to increase the level of compensation by IOPCF, or to complement the International Fund by a European Fund, while awaiting progress in international talks. IOPCF has until now worked towards creating a working group on this issue. The creation of the European Fund is supported especially in France, and to a lesser extent by Spain and Portugal.
Maritime safety agency - The Commission proposed the creation of an agency that will be responsible for co-ordinating the activities of the national authorities, to contribute towards the technical drafting of legislative texts, and assisting the candidate countries, notably Cyprus and Malta, to adopt the European standards. The Presidency asks the Member States if an agency would contribute towards the coordination and that its tasks should be. Denmark and Germany have reservations of principal over the creation of the agency. Most of the Member States are more in favour, on condition that its independence from the Commission is guaranteed. To do this they want for the text to be modified, as it presently foresees that the Commission selects most of the members of the agency's administrative council and that it sets its mission orders. The European Community Ship Owners Association, the ECSA, calls, for its part, to avoid excessive bureaucracy and for the Agency's tasks to be clearly defined to avoid overlaps between Community and national competences.