Malta rapped over port state inspectors

The European Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Malta for accepting persons without proper qualifications as port state inspectors after the country failed to adequately transpose a directive adopted in 1995.

The Commission said Maltese law allowed non-qualified "inspectors" employed before May 1, 2004 to continue to work as port state control inspectors.

The government disagrees with the Commission's interpretation of the directive and is contesting it.

The provisions of the directive were strengthened in the wake of the Erika accident in 1999, during which a 25-year old Malta-registered tanker broke in two off the coast of Brittany, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Atlantic and onto the region's beaches and rocky coast.

The directive aims to reduce substandard shipping in waters under the jurisdiction of member states through increased compliance with international and relevant EU legislation on maritime safety, protection of the marine environment and living and working conditions on board ships of all flags.

It establishes common criteria for the control of ships by the port state and harmonises procedures on inspection and detention of substandard ships.

The directive only allows inspection tasks to be performed by persons without the required qualifications if they were employed as such before June 1995.

In a statement the Ministry for Competitiveness and Communications said this aspect concerns the obligation of member states to ensure that port state inspectors are in possession of certain qualifications.

"Malta naturally agrees with the need for port state inspectors to be in possession of the requisite qualifications but has pointed out to the Commission that the directive allowed inspectors employed before the adoption of this directive to remain in their posts.

"The government of Malta interprets this to be a measure designed to ensure that no state was obliged to terminate the engagement of inspectors who did not fulfil the new criteria introduced by the directive but who were in post before the Member State became bound by the same directive.

"It is therefore possible that some of these port state inspectors are still performing these functions in those countries that were already members of the European Union on June 19,1995.

"The European Commission is interpreting this exemption to apply only to inspectors in place on June 19, 1995, a full nine years before the directive became applicable to Malta.

"The Maltese government, on the other hand, maintains that inspectors who on the date that the directive became applicable to Malta (May 1, 2004) did not meet the criteria laid down in the directive but who had been employed by the Malta Maritime Authority in the years prior to this date, have a right to continue to remain in post. This is a reasonable and logical interpretation of all the provisions of the directive taken together," the ministry said.

The statement said the government intends to defend this case in all the relevant fora.