The members of the European Network of Maritime Clusters (ENMC) have unanimously agreed, during the annual meeting held in Malta, that the Brexit deal must minimise disruption at ports and to the complex European supply chains.
ENMC released this statement ahead of the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union on 30 March 2019.
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ENMC said that Europe’s maritime community supports Maritime UK’s ambition for a mutually beneficial deal between the UK and EU. In order to achieve this, negotiations need ‘calm heads and a sharp focus on delivering the sensible, mutually-beneficial deal both sides of the channel rely upon’. This will ultimately provide certainty and stability to businesses.
In addition, the deal should minimise disruption at ports and to the complex European supply chains.
People are often lost in this debate. Be it seafarers or others working in our maritime sector – the most global of industries – the deal must enable our people to be able to work, live and move across Europe.
What is more recently, the Irish Department of Transport, Tourism, and Sport published a notice regarding Brexit’s impact on maritime security. Namely, as of the withdrawal date on 30 March 2019, the EU rules in the field of maritime security will no longer apply to the United Kingdom. This has in particular the following consequences:
- Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 725/2004 requires the relevant authority for maritime security of the Member State torequest ships announcing their intention to enter a port to provide certain security information. According to Article 7(1),(2) of Regulation (EC) No 725/2004, Member States can request each other, for international scheduled services operated between them, to exempt these services from providing this mandatory security information. As of the withdrawal date, this possibility will no longer exist for the United Kingdom. This means that, as of the withdrawal date, all scheduled services falling within the scope of Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 725/2004, such as ferry links between the United Kingdom and EU Member States, will be subjected to the mandatory provision of security information set out therein.
- According to Article 16(2) of Directive 2005/65/EC, the personnel performing security inspections or handling confidential information (including the personnel of recognised security organisations) requires a security vetting of the Member State of which the person concerned is a national. This means that United Kingdom personnel (thus holding a security clearance from the United Kingdom) can no longer carry out the security inspectionsreferred to in this Directive.
