The Commission's amended proposal incorporates the amendments made by the European Parliament in its first reading regarding the following:
- the need for consistency with existing regional agreements,
- the importance of setting Community criteria for ships producing little waste,
- the need to ensure that ships which are exempted from the scope of this Directive shall act in a manner consistent, so far as is reasonable, with this Directive,
- the need to include sewage, as defined in Annex IV of Marpol 73/78, in the definition of ship-generated waste at the latest one year after the entry ionto force of that Annex.
The Commission also accepts the argument of the European Parliament that the stopping of unloading and loading procedures in some cases could constitute a disproportionately severe way of sanctioning non-complying ships and that reference should be made to a Community based environmental management scheme instead of ISO standards.
The Commission, however, did not accept amendments regarding:
- the inclusion of all fishing vessels of more than 15 metres within the motification and enforcement regimes of this Directive,
- the amendment leading to a 'no special fee' system for the recovery of costs for waste reception facilities, through which at least 90% of the total costs shall be charged irrespective of actual use of the facilities,
- the specification of the percentage of spot checks to be carried out to 25% of all ships calling at a port each year,
- the transfer of existing powers of the Commission in competition matters to the Council,
- the approval and implementation of waste reception and handling plans,
- a common policy for waste disposal arrangements with third country ports,
- the implementation by all Member States of the Helsinki Convention and its rules on fees.�