PURPOSE: to authorise Member States to ratify the Protocol of 2010 to the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea, with regard to the aspects related to judicial cooperation in civil matters.
NON LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Decision (EU) 2017/770 on the ratification and accession by Member States, in the interest of the European Union, to the Protocol of 2010 to the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea, with regard to the aspects related to judicial cooperation in civil matters
CONTENT: the Decision authorises Member States to ratify or accede to, as appropriate, the Protocol of 2010 in the interest of the Union with regard to the aspects related to judicial cooperation in civil matters for which the Union has exclusive competence, subject to the conditions laid down in this Decision.
The 2010 HNS Convention aims to make it possible for compensation to be paid to victims of accidents involving hazardous and noxious substances, such as chemicals, including in the context of environmental damage, in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It replaces the 1996 HNS Convention has not entered into force due to an insufficient number of ratifications.
A text consolidating the 1996 HNS Convention and the Protocol of 2010 (‘2010 HNS Convention’) was prepared by the International Maritime Organization (‘IMO’) Secretariat and approved by the IMO Legal Committee at its 98th meeting.
The Union has exclusive competence in relation to Articles 38, 39 and 40 of the 2010 HNS Convention in as much as that Convention affects the rules laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. Therefore, Member States need to be authorized to ratify or accede to the Protocol with regard to these aspects.
Ratification instruments: the Decision provides that Member States shall endeavour to take the necessary steps to deposit the instruments of ratification of, or accession to, the Protocol of 2010 within a reasonable time and, if possible, by 6 May 2021.
Data on contributing cargo: in order for States to become Contracting Parties to the Protocol of 2010, and thereby to the 2010 HNS Convention, they have to submit to the Secretary-General of the IMO, at the same time as their instrument of consent, relevant data on the total quantities of contributing cargo under the 2010 HNS Convention during the preceding calendar year. For that purpose, States are required to set up a system for the reporting of HNS contributing cargo prior to expressing their consent to be bound by the Protocol of 2010.
The Council Decision provides that Member States shall:
· inform each other and the Council and the Commission in an appropriate manner when the system for the reporting of HNS contributing cargo becomes operational;
· seek to exchange best practice, in particular on the system for the reporting of HNS contributing cargo.
It should be noted a Decision presented in parallel to this one aims to ratify the 2010 Protocol, with the exception of the aspects related to judicial cooperation in civil matters.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 5.5.2017.