03/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Port state control. MEPs have approved the amendment to the 2009/16/EC directive on port state control, in order to comply with the Marine Labour Convention (MLC) adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). They adopted the report by Brian Simpson (S&D, United Kingdom) by 679 votes to 20, with 13 abstentions. Parliament was keen to ensure that existing European standards were not watered down and that the confidential complaints procedure was mandatory so as not to discourage seafarers from action in this connection. (MD/transl.fl)