IMO Assembly 28th Outcome

From November 25 to December 4, 2013

IMO Assembly is the highest Governing Body of the organisation. It consists of all Member States (170) and meets once every two years where it approves the work programme, votes the budget and determines IMO’s financial arrangements. The Assembly also elects a Council for a two year term as is the case for 2014 and 2015.

By way of explanation, the Council is the Executive Body of the IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the IMO’s work. Between the two-yearly sessions of the Assembly the Council performs a majority of all Assembly functions most notable of which is that of appointing the Secretary-General, though subject to approval by the Assembly.

Council members are elected in three categories as follows:

• Category (a) 10 States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services
• Category (b) 10 other States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade, and
• Category (c) 20 States not elected under (a) or (b) above which have special interest in maritime transport or navigation and, importantly, whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic interests of the world.

A great deal of the first week was spent by relevant Member States making their case for election to the Council for the next biennium 2014 / 2015. On this occasion, the 10 sitting States in Category (a) and (b) were unchallenged whilst 24 Members vied for the 20 places in Category (c). Voting slips for this third category were cast by the 157 Member States present of which 154 were valid.

The composition of the New Council is:

The Council, as the elected executive body of 40 Member States, normally meets twice a year (once a year during Assembly year) and monitors the status of the biennial budget, also the progress of work by the legal and technical bodies, ie Legal, Facilitation, Technical Co-Operation, Maritime Safety and Marine Environment Protection Committees, with the latter two – the MSC and the MEPC – acting as the ‘parent bodies’ of the recently reorganised specialist Sub-Committees.

In order to achieve its objectives, succeeding Assemblies adopt three documents: (1) the Strategic Plan (SP), covering a six-year period; (2) the High Level Action Plan (HLAP) covering the biennium, ie over the next 2 years, and (3) the Results-Based Budget (RBB), also over the biennium. In simple terms, the Assembly then sets out to quantify the high-level actions necessary to achieve the directions laid out in the Strategic Plan and as provided for in the Results-Based Budget. Easier said than done …

Points of interest from the meeting, suitably abbreviated are as follows:

• STRATEGY, PLANNING AND REFORM. A draft Assembly resolution on ‘High Level Action Plan of the Organisation’ and priorities for the 2014 – 2015 biennium was adopted in Plenary.
• IMO MEMBER STATE AUDIT SCHEME. It was decided that after transition from voluntary to mandatory, the Audit Scheme should be arranged and carried out in line with the Framework and Procedures using the III Code (IMO Instrument Implementation Code) as the audit standard.
• REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF MSC, MEPC AND FAL COMMITTEES. Reports and recommendations by all three committees during the period under review were approved and adopted as follows:

A further seven draft Assembly resolutions related to both maritime safety and marine environment protection were also adopted:

It was noted that MEPC 65 had approved (2) with a view to providing confidence in the application of the BWM Convention. The resolution will allow flag states to give owners up until the first special survey date of a vessel after the convention comes into force, to be compliant, and this could mean up to a five-year respite for some.

The criteria of at least 30 Member States has already been exceeded by 5, representing 31% of world tonnage and the Convention will come into force a year after the percentage of the global fleet represented by signatories exceeds 35%. So far, 31 BW systems have gained full type-approval out of a total of 71 systems being developed or tested.

Shipowners generally consider that the testing process is not robust enough, indeed the US has drawn up its own regulations which will come into force soon and they will not ratify the BWM Convention. Vessels built before this month will have until the first scheduled survey, after either 2014 or 2016 depending on ballast-water capacity. IMO type-approval of systems will also require US approval of which there are none to date.

However, 27 have received a provisional permit known as an ‘Alternative Management System’ (AMS) and having such a permit grants them a five-year window to operate in accordance with the rules. Type approval by the US authorities for which manufacturers must apply is more stringent than that for IMO.

FAL: Two draft Assembly resolutions were adopted:

(1) Implementation of the Facilitation Convention, and
(2) Fair treatment of Crew Members in respect of shore leave and access to shore-side facilities.

The short-term solution at (2) was proposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran pending the entry into force of relevant amendments to the FAL Convention.

AMENDMENTS (MINOR) were made to:

• The International Convention on Load Lines, 1966
• The International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships, 1969, and
• The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972

Source: InterManager