Only if it is declined by any interested party to use the official national appeal procedure but the owner or operator still wishes to complain about a detention decision, such a complaint should be sent to the flag State or the recognised organisation (if authorised to act for the flag State).

The flag State or Recognised Organisation should then submit a reconsideration request to the port State regarding its decision to detain the ship (when detained in Italy, the reconsideration request should be send to the Italian Port State Control Authorities within 30 days from the date of detention).

In such cases the port State should investigate the decision and inform the flag State or the R.O. of the outcome.  If the port State agrees to reverse its decision it should also inform the Paris MOU database manager and the Paris MoU Secretariat.

Submission of a case for review:

1. If the flag State or the recognized organization disagrees with the outcome of the investigation as mentioned above, a request for review may be sent to the Paris MoU Secretariat. This request can only be submitted by the flag State or the R.O., within 120 days from the date of release of the vessel from detention.  Such a request should be accompanied by all information relevant to the detention in electronic format (submission by E-mail to: secretariat@parismou.org ) and in the English language. The submission form (hereunder) is to be used.

2. The Secretariat will set up a “Review Panel” comprising of itself and 4 MOU Authorities requested on a rotating basis, excluding the port- and flag States involved if applicable.

3. The Review Panel will consider the procedural and technical aspects of the inspection based on the information provided by the flag State and/or the recognized organization and the port State. The details of correspondence are kept as an internal matter.

4. The Secretariat will prepare a summary of the opinions of the Review Panel within 30 days of accepting the request and will inform the flag State or the recognized organization, as appropriate, the port State and the MOU Advisory Board.

5. If the views of the Review Panel support the flag State or recognized organization’s complaint, the port State will be requested to reconsider its decision again.

6. The findings of the Review Panel are not binding but may provide justification for the port State to amend its inspection data already inserted in the database and to inform the database manager and the Secretariat accordingly. The secretariat will inform the flag State or recognized organization, as appropriate on the action (not) taken by the port State.