Brussels, 17/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission decided to initiate court action against Belgium for failure to comply with measures adopted for transposing Directive 2002/6 concerning the formalities applying to ships entering or leaving Community ports. The directive provides for the international forms of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to be recognised in their standardised format for ships entering or leaving Community ports. Five standard forms are therefore used within the EU instead of the fifty different forms that existed before. Member States were to adopt the provisions needed for transposing the directive into national law by 9 September 2003 at the latest. Although Belgium has partially transposed the directive into national law, the forms adopted are not conform to what is provided for in the directive, which creates diversity that counters hoped-for administrative simplification. After having sent a letter of formal notice on 12 May 2004 and a reasoned opinion on 18 October 2004 and seen the lack of resolve on the part of Belgium to carry it out, the Commission decided to take the matter to Court.