Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 98/41/EC on the registration of persons sailing on board passenger ships operating to or from ports of the Member States of the Community and amending Directive 2010/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on reporting formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States

In the spirit of the Commission's REFIT and Better Regulation agenda and as an immediate follow-up to the fitness check on EU passenger ship safety legislation, the Commission puts forward a set of proposals to bring about the identified simplification potential.

The objectives of this revision are to simplify and streamline the existing EU passenger ship safety regulatory framework, in order to (i) maintain EU rules where necessary and proportionate; (ii) ensure their correct implementation; and (iii) eliminate potential overlap of obligations and inconsistencies between related pieces of legislation. An overarching objective is to provide for a clear, simple and up-to-date legal framework that is easier to implement, monitor and enforce, increasing thus the overall safety level.

Council Directive 98/41/EC provides for counting and registration of passengers and crew on board of passenger ships operating to and from the EU ports. It aims to ensure that the safety of passengers is not compromised by exceeding the maximum authorised number of persons on board and that search and rescue in the aftermath of any accident can be dealt with effectively.

Directive 98/41/EC was the first EU piece of legislation dealing with information on persons on board. Since 1998, however, other pieces of EU law and international conventions dealing with related issues have entered into force and new technological systems and solutions have been developed. This has resulted in increasingly complex and overlapping legal provisions dealing with the counting, registration and reporting of persons on board.

It is therefore proposed to update, clarify and simplify the existing requirements for counting and registration of passengers and crew on board passenger ships while enhancing the level of safety they provide for. This is fully in line with the Commission's REFIT programme and aims to exploit the digitalisation potential of recording, transmitting, accessing and protecting data.

See also:
- Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2009/45/EC on safety rules and standards for passenger ships
- Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on a system of inspections for the safe operation of ro-ro ferry and high-speed passenger craft in regular service and amending Directive 2009/16/EC on port state control and repealing Directive 1999/35/EC

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)370: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:370:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)189: Implementation plan http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:189:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)190: Simplification of EU passenger ship safety legislation http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:190:FIN

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