2 Maritime safety
| (27218)
5171/06
COM(05) 589
| Draft Directive amending Directive 2002/59/EC establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system
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| Legal base | Article 80(2) EC; co-decision; QMV
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| Department | Transport |
| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 18 May 2006
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 34-xviii (2005-06), para 8 (8 February 2006)
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| To be discussed in Council | 8-9 June 2006
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
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Background
2.1 Directive 2002/59/EC established a Community vessel traffic
monitoring and information system aimed at preventing damage to
marine and coastal environments by making shipping safer. The
Commission proposes this draft Directive to amend some of the
existing provisions of Directive 2002/59/EC — notably in
respect of technical requirements for information interchange,
declarations concerning the carriage of dangerous or polluting
goods, suspect vessels, places of refuge and comitology[2]
— and to introduce new provisions — notably in respect
of carriage of Automatic Identification System (AIS) equipment
on board fishing vessels and measures in ice conditions.
2.2 In February 2006 we said that before considering
this matter further we should like to:
- hear whether the Government
had concluded that there is a subsidiarity problem arising from
the proposal;
- have the Commission's impact assessment, particularly
in relation to costs for the fishing industry;
- see the Government's Regulatory Impact Assessment;
and
- hear of developments during negotiations on a
number of matters the Government had drawn to our attention as
problematic.
Meanwhile we have kept the document the document
under scrutiny.[3]
The Minister's letter
2.3 The Minister of State, Department of Transport
(Dr Stephen Ladyman) writes now with a response on a number of
points. In relation to subsidiarity he says that on consideration
the Government does not think that the Commission's proposal falls
foul of the subsidiarity principle. The Minister comments that
as shipping is an international business the best place to develop
regulatory standards for it is the International Maritime Organization.
Nonetheless matters covered by the proposal are broad areas where
there is already regional, that is Community, legislation and
it does not appear to push the boundary significantly further.
2.4 As for the proportionality of the proposal for
carriage of AIS equipment on fishing vessels, which had been prompted
by a number of unfortunate collisions between merchant ships and
fishing vessels, the Minister tells us that, while the Government
recognises there is a problem to be addressed, it has questioned
whether the proposed response is right, particularly holding that
the cost burden which the provision would impose is disproportionate
to the likely safety benefit. He says that although the issue
has yet to be resolved the majority of Member States do not share
the Government's view and it is likely that the text of the draft
Directive for consideration by the Transport Council will contain
a provision relating to AIS on fishing vessels.
2.5 The Minister continues that consequently the
Government has sought with like-minded Member States to reduce
the cost impact on the fishing industry by ensuring that the requirement
to carry AIS equipment is phased in over a number of years after
the draft Directive comes into force. He says:
- the likely outcome will be
a phase-in period of four or five years, starting with larger
vessels (where the cost will be proportionately less in terms
of the other costs of operating and maintaining the vessel) working
down to the smaller boats (where the costs of fitting AIS would
be proportionately higher);
- the annual cost impact on the UK industry if
a five year phase-in period were agreed would be of the order
of £240,000. Vessels built after the draft Directive came
into force would be required to be AIS equipped, but the cost
of the AIS equipment would be minimal relative to the building
and fitting-out costs of fishing vessels of 15 metres or more;
and
- while the current average cost of the necessary
equipment is in the order of £1,400 the Government expects
that the price of the equipment will fall in real terms over the
phase-in period given the increased volume of units required and
technological advances.
2.6 On developments on other issues the Minister
tells us:
- the Government and a number
of other Member States continue to argue strongly against an explicit
reference to the draft Directive on civil liability and financial
securities of shipowners, which is not currently under Council
discussion.[4] One reference
has been deleted from the Presidency text, and the Government
and like-minded Member States favour a straightforward deletion
of the other reference. A small minority of Member States still
wish to retain the reference on the grounds that the other draft
Directive may yet be taken up by a Presidency before this proposal
is adopted. Some Member States have yet to commit themselves to
a position;
- the provisions on places of refuge for vessels
in distress have met with severe opposition from some Member States
who considered that it would impose obligations on them which
they were reluctant to accept. The Presidency text has been modified
to take account of these concerns. The reference to "an independent
competent authority", on which the Government wanted clarification,
has now been removed and it expects that the reference to meetings
of Member States' authorities being held at the initiative of
the Commission, on which it has reservations, will also be removed;
and
- the Government and another Member State have
pressed, in relation to the provision on measures in ice conditions,
for wording, analogous to that in the existing Community legislation
so as to reaffirm the decision-making role of the master in the
context of the Safety of Life At Sea Convention. New wording has
been developed which both the Government and the other Member
State accept as sufficient.
2.7 As for future progress on the draft Directive
the Minister says that it is expected that the June 2006 Transport
Council will be adopted and that the European Parliament's first
reading of the proposal is currently scheduled for November 2006.
2.8 Finally, the Minister says that he expects to
send us a Regulatory Impact Assessment of the proposal shortly.
Conclusion
2.9 We are grateful to the Minister for this account
of where matters stand on this proposal. However we wish to give
further consideration to the draft Directive once we have:
- the promised Regulatory
Impact Assessment, which we assume will take account of the department's
informal consultations with the industry; and
- the English version of the Commission's own
impact assessment we requested previously.
2.10 Meanwhile we do not clear the document.
2 Comitology is the system of committees which oversees
the exercise by the Commission of legislative powers delegated
to it by the Council and the European Parliament. Comitology committees
are made up of representatives of the Member States and chaired
by the Commission. There are three types of procedure (advisory,
management and regulatory), an important difference between which
is the degree of involvement and power of Member States' representatives. Back
3
See headnote. Back
4
See (27271) 5907/06: HC 34-xxi (2005-06), para 6 (8 March 2006). Back
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