29th of May 2017

THE PARIS MOU MARKS ITS 35TH ANNIVERSARY BY HOLDING ITS 50TH MEETING IN GDANSK, POLAND

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MoU) held its 50th Committee meeting in Gdansk, Poland, from the 22nd to the 26th May 2017, this special meeting was chaired by Mr. Brian Hogan. During the meeting, member States also commemorated the Paris MoU 35th anniversary and 25th anniversary of Poland being a member of the organization.

The Paris MoU welcomed the “Ministerial Declaration” signed during the 3rd Joint Ministerial Conference between the Paris and Tokyo MoUs held in Vancouver earlier this month. Secretary General Richard Schiferli expressed the view of the Committee that the declaration demonstrates that the Paris MoU and Tokyo MoU members agree on the importance to safeguard responsible and sustainable shipping in order to further enhance safety, environmental protection and working and living conditions for seafarers. The declaration will provide political support to undertake port State control initiatives between the two regions.

The methodology for calculating flag and recognized organization (RO) performance, used for the targeting of ships for inspection, is being reviewed. The Committee agreed to move towards a new scheme to replace the current White-Grey-Black List and RO performance List in the near future.

High importance was given to the report of the Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on MLC, 2006. The CIC was carried out from September to November 2016. The general conclusion was that the results show a proper implementation of the MLC requirements on board the ships inspected, and compliance on the MLC areas focused on in the questionnaire.

The Committee approved the questionnaire for the CIC on Safety of Navigation to be carried out jointly with the Tokyo MoU. The CIC aims at checking the compliance with Safety of Navigation, including Electronic Chart Display Information Systems (ECDIS). The CIC will be carried out from September to November 2017 and the questionnaire will be published in August.

The Committee took decisions in relation to the sustainability of shipping, including the Polar Code, Ballast Water Management and air emissions from ships.

The Committee adopted the 2016 Annual Report, including the White, Grey and Black List and the performance list of recognized organizations. The lists will be published in early June and used for targeting purposes from 1 July 2017. The Annual Report will be published by the end of July this year. The number of ships which have been refused access to the Paris MoU region after multiple detentions has increased from 11 to 20. Five ships have been refused access for the second time. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the New Inspection Regime. The Committee noted that the detention percentage has increased from 3.3% to 3.8%.

The Committee re-elected Mr. Brian Hogan (Ireland) as Chairman and elected Mr. Naim Nazha (Canada) as vice-Chairman.

The meeting was attended by members of the Paris MoU, the European Commission, EMSA, Montenegro, observers from the International Labour Organization, US Coast Guard, Tokyo MoU, Caribbean MoU, Mediterranean MoU, Black Sea MoU and Indian Ocean MoU.

On behalf of the member Authorities, Mr. Hogan concluded the meeting by remarking that significant progress has been made on port State control issues during this meeting. He thanked all member Authorities, the European Commission, EMSA and the Paris MoU Secretariat for their contribution. In particular Mr. Hogan thanked the Maritime Authority of Poland, for the excellent arrangements they made for this Committee meeting.