Common rules and standards for ship inspection and survey organisations. Recast

The European Parliament adopted by 645 votes to 18, with 8 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the Council common position for adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on common rules and standards for ship inspection and survey organisations (recast).

The recommendation for second reading (co-decision procedure) had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Luis de GRANDES PASCUAL (EPP-ED, ES) on behalf of the Committee on Transport and Tourism.

The main purpose of the amendments is to reinstate Parliament’s position at first reading:

Assessment Committee: the Parliament calls on the Member States, together with the recognised organisations to set up, by 18 months after the date of entry into force of the directive, an Assessment Committee in accordance with the quality standards EN 45012. The Assessment Committee shall have the necessary competences to act independently and shall be periodically audited by the Commission. The Committee shall be responsible for the following tasks:

• regulation and continuous assessment of the quality management systems of recognised organisations, in accordance with the ISO 9001 quality standard criteria;
• certification of the quality system of recognised organisations;
• issue of binding interpretations of internationally recognised quality management standards;
• adoption of individual and collective recommendations for the improvement of recognised organisations' rules, processes and internal control mechanisms.

Access to information for assessment purposes: according to MEPs, no clauses in a contract of a recognised organisation with a third party or in an authorisation agreement with a flag State may be invoked to restrict the access of the Commission to the information necessary for the purposes of the assessment of the recognised organisations.

Cooperation between recognised organisations: the recognised organisations shall consult with each other periodically with a view to maintaining equivalence and aiming for harmonisation of their rules and regulations and the implementation thereof. In appropriate cases, the organisations shall agree on the technical and procedural conditions under which they will mutually recognise their respective classification certificates based on equivalent models , taking the most demanding and rigorous standards as their reference and particularly taking into account marine equipment bearing the mark of conformity in accordance with Council Directive 96/98/EC.

Report: the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council by three years after the entry into force of the directive, based on an independent study, on the level reached in the process of harmonising the rules and regulations and on mutual recognition. In the event of failure by the recognised organisations to fulfil the provisions of the Regulation, the Commission shall propose to the European Parliament and the Council the appropriate measures.

Comitology: the Regulation may, without broadening its scope, be amended, in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny, in order to update the minimum criteria set out in Annex I, taking into account the relevant decisions of the IMO.