The EU commission will introduce proposed new in order to ulteriorly increase safety of the fleeting ships



The EU commission is working to the proposed new elaboration in order to ulteriorly increase safety of the fleeting ships that will be returned notes within fine this year and that they could be continuations in 2013 from ulterior measures. It has announced today the vice president of the EU commission, Siim Kallas, responsible for Mobility and the transports, introducing a conference on safety of the fleeting ships is turned to Brussels that has been organized from the same Commission with the attempt to start a consultation with the parts interested on the priority actions to undertake.

Kallas has explained that this year the Commission will introduce in the first instance proposed legislative on the safety regulations for the fleeting ships that operate on national routes, extending the norms EU for the fleeting ships constructed in steel that operate on national routes to the other types of ship, that is to the ships from smaller passengers, to the ships constructed in various materials from the steel, to the windjammers and the historical ships, units that - it has specified - constitute a more and more wide market share, in particular for tourism.

The Commission previews therefore to introduce a proposal in order to update to the norms in matter of stability of the ships for the transport of rotabili and passengers, in particular with the attempt to improve the stability in case of damaging of the ship. At the same time the Commission will transmit to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) the results of its search on the stability of the ferries ro-pax damaged in order to improve the international norms of the IMO. For these ferries - it has observed Kallas - the stability is particularly important, data the problems that could happen with the income of water in the bridges of the ship. Kallas has announced that the preliminary results of research project GOALDS on the stability of the cruise ships and ro-pax, financed by the EU, will be finalized in autumn 2012 and have specified that, before to assume other proposals, the Commission will on 13 January attend the results of these technical studies let alone of the investigations in course by the Italian authorities on the shipwreck of happened Costa Concordia.

Remembering that the EU has been equipped of own safety regulations for the ferries after the tragedy of twenty years ago of Estonia, Kallas has emphasized that "dramatic incidents which that of the Titanic, Estonia or Costa Concordia have put safety of the ships to the center of the attention. From disasters of such capacity instructions must be always drawn. But we avoid to be arrest warrants to wait for the next incident. To limit itself to react after another tragedy would be rash. The EU has been equipped of the norms on safety of the more rigid ships of the world, thanks to continuous improvements, sets in action proattive and preventive measures in order to improve the norms in matter of marine safety".

Kallas has illustrated the new approach that the Commission intends to follow and that it is based on three guiding lines: to promote the voluntary measures by the field, to strengthen the application and the performance of the norms and to establish new prescribed measures exactly.

About the demanded voluntary engagement to the shipowning field that takes care of the transport of passengers, Kallas has manifested appreciation for the new measures on a voluntary basis announced today in the course of the conference from the president of the European Cruise Council (ETC), Manfredi Lefebvre, that it is also member of the directive council of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), emphasizing that such engagements go legally beyond demanded how much and that, if realized in rigorous way, they can have a meaningful and immediate effect.

Lefebvre has announced in fact the adoption with immediate effect of three new security measures that will be introduced the next month to the examination of Maritime the Safety Committee of the IMO. The first is relative to the planning of the routes and previews that of such planning the members of the present team are perfectly to acquaintance all on the bridge of the ship with wide advance payment regarding its performance and that such planning is elaborated by an official purposely delegated and authorized from the commander of the ship.

The second measure proposed from the ETC is relative to the access of the staff of the ship to the bridge and previews to limit such access to the staff with operating functions in occasion of particular requirements of maneuver or when a greater vigilance is demanded, with the objective to reduce lessened the interruptions or distractions from the job not necessary. The third measure regards the access to the life jackets and previews that, besides the obligatory transport of jackets for every present person on board of the ship, other life jackets for adults are transported, in excess regarding established how much from the law, in way such that the number of these ulterior jackets is not inferior to the number total of present people in the which peopled main vertical zone more of the ship, in order to do so as that the number of the present jackets altogether on the ship is by far advanced regarding the number of effectively boarded people.

Moreover the new initiative of the European Cruise Council previews the nomination of a panel of four independent experts (Stephen Meyer, Willem de Ruiter, Mark Rosenker and Jack Spencer) that already they are consulted to the aim of the elaboration of the three measures, that they are charged to watch their performance and that they will be consulted with respect to future proposals.

"The field of the cruises - it has found Manfredi Lefebvre - strongly is ordered and is this normative picture, with the professionality and the engagement of our officials and crews of edge, that it has given to the industry of the cruises a record of indeed remarkable safety. But, as it demonstrates the incident of the Concord, things as absolute safety do not exist. We engage ourselves to an absolute dedication towards safety and, which part of our engagement for a culture of safety, the field, is individually as crocieristiche companies is collectively through the CLIA and the ETC - Lefebvre has remembered - from on 27 January has launch an operating review of safety in order to draw lessons from the episode of the Concord and in order to carry out a complete re-examination of safety".

Besides to promote voluntary measures by the industry of the shipping, proposed already received from crocieristica association international CLIA and the European crocieristica association ETC, the second line director of the EU commission previews a rigorous application of the current safety regulations. Kallas has remembered that, with the European Agency for marine safety (EMSA) and in the picture of own running activities, the Commission has started inspections understandings to verify the performance of the marine norm, concentrating itself in particular, for 2012, on the recording of the passengers on board and that this job re-enters in the picture of a program wider than measures than application aimed for the field of the fleeting ships.

The third line of action of the EU commission exactly previews the presentation before the end of 2012 of new proposed legislative on the safety regulations for the fleeting ships that operate on national routes. In particular, the Commission previews a review of directive 2009/45/CE on the fleeting ships used after national services, with the objective of a simplification of the norm and a widening of its capacity to the fleeting ships more small, to the ships constructed in various materials from the steel and to the historical ships. Moreover the Commission previews to introduce a proposal in order to update to the norms EU that fix requisitioned specific of stability for the ferry boats ro-pax (directive 2003/25/CE) to the aim to improve of the stability after an incident that has caused damages to the ship.

The phase of public consultation of 12 weeks on safety of the ships fleeting programmed from the EU commission, in whose aimed at the today's conference has been carried out, will conclude next the 5 July and will be continuation from a seminary for the interested parts, in occasion of which the received contributions will be introduced. On the base of this consultation and the two carried out years of technical job, the Commission will introduce therefore its first legislative proposal within the end of 2012.