Brussels, 31/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has introduced a complaint against Finland to the Court of Justice (ECJ), for failure to respect the legislation in force on checks on boats by the port State. Finland has not transposed the directive adopted in 2001 after the 1999 Erika shipwreck, which aims to reduce the use of dangerous vessels in waters which come under the Member States' jurisdiction, by establishing stricter inspection standards. The Member States committed to speed up the process and transpose the directive into their national law by 22 July 2003 at the latest, after the Prestige disaster in 2002. The Erika and Prestige shipwrecks flagged up shortcomings in the old regulations, which only provided for quite superficial inspections, with all the risks that implied, said the Commission. Commissioner Loyola de Palacio "very much hopes that Finland will take the necessary measures as soon as possible", because "the Baltic Sea would not survive a disaster like the Erika shipwreck".
The Commission will also bring Italy before the ECJ for its failure to communicate national measures transposing a 2002 directive on marine equipment, aiming to ensure the uniform application of international instruments on equipment placed on board sea-going ships, which should have been transposed into national law by 23 March 2003.