A political agreement was reached on February 13 between the European Parliament and the Council on the investigation of maritime accidents, modernising a 2009 Directive.
According to the EU, although maritime safety in EU waters is very high, with few fatalities and no recent major oil spills, more than 2,000 marine accidents and incidents are still reported every year. For instance, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) reported that in 2022, there were 2,510 marine casualties and incidents reported, a decrease of 182 from 2021 and 84 from 2020.
Among key new measures, the co-legislators agreed to bring the most serious accidents involving smaller fishing vessels (less than 15 metres) within the scope of the Directive.
Furthermore, EMSA will provide operational support and training to national investigative authorities on their request, while respecting their operational independence.
More specifically, the new directive aims to:
- improve the protection of fishing vessels, their crews, and the environment, with fishing vessels less than 15 metres in length now included within the scope of the directive, meaning that accidents involving fatalities and loss of vessels will be investigated in a systematic and harmonised way
- clarify the definitions and the legal provisions so that member states’ accident investigation bodies investigate all accidents that need to be investigated in a timely and harmonised manner
- enhance the capacity of accident investigation bodies to conduct and report on accident investigations in a timely, expert, and independent manner
- update several definitions and references to relevant EU legislation and IMO regulations, to ensure clarity and consistency.
The revised directive also aligns EU law with the most up-to-date international provisions adopted by the International Maritime Organization and requires that Member State accident investigation authorities engage in a peer review process to improve, to learn from each other and improve their procedures and outputs.
Key elements of the new legislation
The general thrust of the Commission’s proposal has been retained by the co-legislators. However, several amendments to the proposal were introduced to the text, mainly aiming to enable accident investigation bodies to conduct accident investigations in a harmonised way throughout the EU by making the existing rules clearer and more consistent with international regulations. Other amendments aim to strengthen the provisions regarding the independence of accident investigation bodies and the confidentiality of their findings, and to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens.
More concretely, the provisional agreement covers inter alia the following aspects:
- alignment with the IMO casualty investigation code on the obligation to inform maritime security authorities if the accident investigation body suspects that an offence has been committed
- provisions related to the conformity check were adjusted in line with several other pieces of EU maritime legislation, such as the maritime equipment directive
- a voluntary approach regarding the quality management system for national investigation authorities accompanied by guidance for its implementation
- a 2-month deadline was introduced for the preliminary assessment in case of accidents involving smaller fishing vessels.
Next steps
The political agreement must now be adopted formally. Once this process is completed by the European Parliament and the Council, the new rules will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and enter into force 20 days later.
Member States will have 30 months to transpose the Directive into national law.
Although maritime safety in EU waters is very high, every accident is one too many, and we need to learn from them. Today’s agreement will help operators and regulators to take the right measures to reduce their occurence, ultimately preventing the loss of human life and environmental pollution.
… said Adina Vălean, Commissioner for Transport
