Two ships, the livestock carrier ‘Blue Moon I’ and the general cargo vessel ‘Sunshine’, have been refused access from the Paris MoU region after being detained in two Greek ports earlier in 2018. Both ships are flying the flag of Togo which is black on the current Paris MoU WGB list.
The ‘Blue Moon I’ was detained in port of Sitia, on 22 February. This was the ship’s third detention in the Paris MoU region within the last 36 months. The ‘Sunshine’ was detained in port of Kalymnos, on 4 April. This was also the third detention in the Paris MoU region within the last 36 months.
Therefore under the provisions of section 4 of the Paris MoU, Article 16 of EU Council Directive 2009/16/EC, the ship(s) will be refused further access to any port and anchorage in the Paris MOU region, except a port and anchorage of the ship’s flag State. This refusal of access will become applicable immediately after the ship is authorized to leave this port and anchorage.
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As this is the first refusal of access order, the period of the refusal of access will be 3 months for each vessel.
Your attention is drawn to the provisions of Section 4.4 of the Paris MOU, Article 21.6 of EU Council Directive 2009/16/EC1, which allow access to a specific port and anchorage in the event of force majeure or overriding safety considerations, or to reduce or minimize the risk of pollution or to have deficiencies rectified, provided that adequate measures to the satisfaction of the competent authority of such State have been implemented by the company or the master of the ship to ensure safe entry.
In the meantime, Paris MoU announced the end of the ban of the Moldova-flagged general cargo ship ‘Acorus’ on 20 April 2018. The ship was detained in the Greek port of Aspropyrgos back in July 2017 and then re-detained in port of Piraeus in November.
