Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the functioning of Directive 2010/65/EU on reporting formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States

Maritime transport must comply with complex administrative procedures, following a wide set of international, European Union (EU) and national legislation in the fields of customs, taxation, immigration, safety and security, waste, health protection, etc. Public authorities therefore require upon a ship's arrival in and/or departure from a port numerous documents and information relating to those fields. These formalities and the procedures to fulfil them are often considered duplicative and time consuming, resulting in costs and delays that could make maritime transport less attractive.

On 20 October 2010, Directive 2010/65/EU on reporting formalities for ships arriving in and/or departing from ports of the Member States (the Reporting Formalities Directive) was adopted. The purpose of the Directive is to simplify and harmonise some of these procedures by establishing a standard electronic transmission of information and by rationalising reporting formalities for ships arriving in and ships departing from EU ports, thus reducing administrative burden for shipping companies. In practice this means that Member States shall accept the fulfilment of these reporting formalities, which are included in the Annex to the Directive, in electronic format and their transmission via a national single window no later than 1st June 2015.

Article 15 of the Directive requires the Commission to report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the functioning of this Directive, including on:
- the progress made towards harmonisation and coordination of reporting formalities, i.e. the implementation of the National Single Window
- the availability of data concerning ship traffic/movement within the Union, and/or calling at third country ports
- the feasibility of avoiding or simplifying formalities for ships that have called at a port in a third country or free zone
- the compatibility of the River Information Services with the electronic data transmission process
- the possibility of extending the simplification introduced by the Directive to inland waterway transport.

This report will address these issues. Since the establishment of the single window is the main requirement of the Directive, it will be dealt with in a separate heading (heading 3). The other issues are dealt with in heading 4. In addition, the report will inform on future plans aiming at improving the maritime exchange of information and simplification and reduction of administrative burden.

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)320: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:320:FIN

ESO: Background information: Maritime Transport: Continuous efforts needed to establish harmonised reporting procedures for vessels http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-maritime-transport-continuous-efforts-needed-to-establish-harmonised-reporting-procedures-for-vessels/

---