Malta flag sails clear of EU list of banned ships

Maltese registered vessels do not feature in a list of ships banned from EU ports which has been published under a new directive.

A total of 19 ships were banned from EU ports between November 1, 2003 and August 31 of this year.

Sources close to the maritime industry told The Times that in view of the fact that Malta has one of the largest shipping registers in the world, its absence from the list augurs well for the Maltese shipping register and shows that things are being managed better by the Maltese authorities.

Malta has often been called a flag of convenience, a label it hotly contests.

The EU has now placed the Malta flag in the medium risk category together with Panama, India, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Iran and Libya. There are three other categories of higher risk, described as very high, high and medium to high.

The list was published by the European Commission a few days ago. Publication of the information is required under the new European rules on port state control to ensure transparency and to deter those who already fall short of the relevant maritime safety standards.

This measure is part of the arsenal of legislation adopted in the wake of the Erika and Prestige disasters to combat oil spills and rust-bucket ships.

Loyola de Palacio, Commissioner for Transport and Energy said: "We must keep up the pressure so that maritime safety continues to improve globally and ensure that the rules are applied rigorously by all member states".

The banned ships flew the flag of eight different states. The highest-risk ships on the EU list were those with the St Vincent and the Grenadines flag, with six ships refused entry. Other ships on the black list are registered in Bolivia, Panama, Turkey, Belize, Cyprus, Romania and Syria.

The ban on entering EU ports was imposed on these ships because they were detained several times and they were flying a flag included in the black list published as part of the annual report of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding of Port State Control.