EC as regards the inclusion of improved stability requirements and its alignment with requirements of the International Maritime Organisation - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2022)53 - Amendment of Directive 2003/25/EC as regards the inclusion of improved stability requirements and its alignment with ...
document	COM(2022)53
date	May 10, 2023

(1) Directive 2003/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁵ establishes a uniform level of specific stability requirements for ro-ro passenger ships improving the survivability of this type of vessel in case of collision damage and providing a high level of safety for the passengers and the crew in combination with the requirements set out in the SOLAS Convention in force at the date of adoption of the Directive (SOLAS 90).

(2) The International Maritime Organisation (‘IMO’) adopted revised specific provisions on stability standards for passenger ships in damaged conditions on 15 June 2017 by Resolution MSC.421(98) which apply also to ro-ro passenger ships. It is necessary to take into account those developments at international level and to align the Union rules and requirements with those established in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (‘the SOLAS Convention’) for ro-ro passenger ships engaged in international voyages.

(3) IMO Resolution 14 of the 1995 SOLAS Conference allowed IMO members to conclude regional agreements if they consider that prevailing sea conditions and other local conditions require specific stability requirements in a designated area. Deterministic damage stability requirements for ro-ro passenger ships set out in Annex I to Directive 2003/25/EC differ from the new international probabilistic requirements, where the safety of a ro-ro passenger ship is measured based on the probability of survival after a collision. The international probabilistic regime is set out in chapter II-1 of the SOLAS. The new requirements should be incorporated to Directive 2003/25.

(4) Requirements laid down in Directive 2009/45/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁶ remain applicable to ro-ro passenger ships. The assessment for different sizes of ro-ro passenger ships of the safety level ensured by the SOLAS 2020 requirements led to the conclusion that the application of stability requirements according to SOLAS 2020 represents a significant risk reduction for ro-ro passenger ships certified to carry more than 1350 persons on board, compared with the requirements included in Directive 2003/25/EC in combination with the SOLAS Convention as amended by the relevant IMO instruments applicable at the time of its adoption (‘SOLAS 90’).

(5) Stability requirements laid down in this Directive for ro-ro passenger ships certified to carry 1350 or fewer persons on board would be difficult to implement for certain designs of those ships. Therefore, economic operators owning or using those ships in a regular service in the Union should have the option to apply the stability requirements applicable before the entry into force of this Directive. The use of such option should be notified by Member States to the Commission together with a set of data related to the ships concerned. Ten years after the date of entry into force of this Directive, the Commission should assess the use of the option in order to decide about a further revision of this Directive.

(6) For ro-ro passenger ships certified to carry 1350 or fewer persons on board, the optional application of the SOLAS 2020 requirements should be conditional to a higher level of the R-index than the one defined in SOLAS 2020 to achieve the appropriate level of safety.

(7) In order to ensure the necessary level of safety, specific damage stability requirements should apply also to existing ro-ro passenger ships that have never been certified according to Directive 2003/25/EC and are entering into regular service in the Union.

(8) In order to enable the Commission to evaluate and report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of this Directive by [OP : Please insert a date: ten years from the entry into force of this amending Directive], Member States should provide data on every new ro-ro passenger ship that is certified after [OP: Please insert a date: one year from the entry into force of this amending Directive] for regular service in compliance with the stability requirements contained in this Directive according to the structure set out in the Annex.

(9) As Directive 2009/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁷ was amended, and Council Directive 1999/35/EC ¹⁸ was repealed by Directive (EU) 2017/2110 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁹, the concept of the ‘host State’ is no longer relevant and should therefore be replaced by that of ‘port State’.

(10) Directive 2003/25/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.