Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2007)737 - Safety rules and standards for passenger ships (Recast) - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2007)737 - Safety rules and standards for passenger ships (Recast).
source	COM(2007)737
date	29-11-2007

1. On 1 April 1987 the Commission decided i to instruct its staff that all legislative acts should be codified after no more than ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement and that departments should endeavour to codify at even shorter intervals the texts for which they are responsible, to ensure that the Community rules are clear and readily understandable.

2. The codification of Council Directive 98/18/EC of 17 March 1998 on safety rules and standards for passenger ships i has been initiated by the Commission. The new Directive was to have superseded the various acts incorporated in it i.

3. In the meantime Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission i has been amended by Decision 2006/512/EC, which introduced a regulatory procedure with scrutiny for measures of general scope designed to amend non-essential elements of a basic instrument adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty, including by deleting some of those elements or by supplementing the instrument by the addition of new non-essential elements.

4. In accordance with the joint statement of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission i on Decision 2006/512/EC, for this new procedure to be applicable to instruments adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty which are already in force, those instruments must be adjusted in accordance with the applicable procedures.

5. It is therefore appropriate to transform the codification of Directive 98/18/EC into a recast in order to incorporate the amendments necessary for the adjustment to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.

98/18/EC (adapted)