Tag: EMSA

European Commision requests from 9 Member States to adopt legislation The European Commission has requested Belgium, Estonia, France, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Finland and the United Kingdom to adopt national legislation to implement EU rules setting up a vessel traffic monitoring and information system .The rules in question, an important measure to prevent loss of life and environmental damage from shipping accidents, were due to be implemented by Member States no later than 30 November 2010.The Commission's request takes the form of a reasoned opinion under EU infringement procedures.If these Member States fail to inform the Commission within two months of what measures they have taken to ensure full compliance with the law, the Commission could refer the case to the EU Court of Justice.Source: EMSA

Policies and operational response capacities for HNS marine pollution 2010 800x600 Normal 0 false false false EL X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has published the 2010 Inventory of EU Member States Policies and Operational Response Capacities for HNS Marine Pollution.The information presented in this report is based on the responses of the EU Member States about their own inventory and response capacities.According to EMSA, reporting on the HNS response capabilities has proved to be rather difficult because the level of preparedness and availability of specialised resources varies significantly between the EU Member States.The Agency has found that what might be considered as an important resource by one Member State might be "almost completely disregarded" by another state. Therefore, EMSA was unable to draw fully objective conclusions on the individual capacities.The Agency suggests that the resources used in HNS incident cleanup operations vary widely due to the vast number of chemicals that could be encountered. Therefore, the competent authorities in the Member States might not store the relevant counter agents but may rather draw upon various specialised suppliers as the need arises.Against this background EMSA makes the point that it is extremely difficult to "to know exactly ...

Newsletter May 2011 EMSA issued Newsletter with the latest news for May 2011 including subjects as following:- Port reception facilities directive reviewed- Malta plays host to safeseanet and LRIT traing- Website makeover for EMSA- EMSA now training over 500 experts a year- EMSA-contracted vessels now on EU's MaratlasFor further information, press here.Source: EMSA

Aims to reduce the dministrative burden on the short sea shipping sector The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has launched its 'blue belt' pilot project, designed to reduce the dministrative burden on the short sea shipping sector.The aim of the blue belt pilot project is to explore new ways to promote and to facilitate short sea shipping in the European Union by reducing the administrative burden for intra-community trade.The project uses information on maritime traffic provided by the EMSA-operated SafeSeaNet European vessel traffic monitoring system to monitor vessel movements, and sends an automatic notification to customs authorities before the vessel's arrival at port.The information authorities are provided with includes current and previous voyages, expected or actual arrival and departure times, previous and next ports of call, and other pertinent voyage information.Consequently the authorities can ensure that a vessel declaring intra-EU goods has only visited EU ports, i.e. that it has stayed within the 'blue belt'.Upon successful assessment of the pilot project, due at the beginning of 2012, existing procedures may be reviewed and adjusted in favour of a permanent blue belt reporting system."The blue belt pilot project, by sharing existing information on maritime traffic among different user communities, has a ...

Hopes to raise standards in accident investigation Investigating serious marine accidents and providing until now often confidential reports and data to a central body will become mandatory this year for all 27 European Union (EU) member states.The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) says it is ready to put into force the 2009 European Commission (EC) regulation requiring all member states to conduct investigations into maritime casualties and to submit their findings.A common investigation process is set to be adopted this year, which creates great hopes that standards in accident investigation will be raised.Source: Safety4Sea