13 EU Member States called the EU Commission to present an ambitious proposal for the revision of the Reporting Formalities Directive. These members want to simplify the directive so that it is in line with the digital age.
The European Commission’s proposal is scheduled for publication on 2 May. The following countries support the call: Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden.
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In a letter to the Commission, the countries say that they want to “free up the significant potential of simplification and harmonization by future-proofing the directive so that it is in line with the digital age through better utilization of existing data sources and automation of administrative processes.”
The current reporting directive has the concept of “National Single Windows”, which aims to make easier the reporting obligations from ships to a single digital system in all Member States. However, Danish Shipping said that this system failed and it has created big burdens for shipping companies in the EU by making different systems across countries and ports.
In particular, a Captain must report variations of the same data over and over and in different formats for each EU country. These are, in some cases, different from port to port in the same country.
