The Commission can endorse the position adopted by
the Council, thus enabling the European Parliament to adopt the
final text at second reading. It noted that, overall, the form
of the text has changed considerably, while the substance of the
original Commission proposal on navigation safety has been
preserved. The Commission welcomed these
improvements.
The Commission stated that most of the Council's
amendments are designed to improve clarity and the implementation
of the Directive. The main changes in the Council position
are:
- reorganising the thematic chapters, thereby improving
clarity. At the Commission's request, the Council has agreed not to
change the technical requirements in the annexes in such a way that
they refer to the CESNI standard adopted in the course of the
discussions held in the Council in November 2015;
- transferring detailed procedural issues from Annex II
to the main body of the Directive, in addition to those already
transferred in the Commission's proposal;
- updating the classification of inland waterways in
Annex I. Sweden has inserted its classification, thus bringing its
inland waterways within the scope of the Directive;
- modifying Article 30, listing the Member States that
are excluded from the scope of the Directive because they have no
inland waterways or because inland navigation is not used to a
significant extent. The other Member States are covered by the
Directive;
- strengthening the provisions on data protection in
relation to the European Hull Database, in line with the opinion of
the European Supervisor for Data Protection (EDPS), who was
consulted by the Commission at the Council's request. Moreover, the
Commission has been empowered to adopt rules on the functioning of
the database by delegated acts;
- deleting the minor legal discrepancy with Directive
2009/100/EC, resulting in an overlap in the scope of application,
has been removed by amending Directive 2009/100/EC.