EU Aligns Ferry Safety Legislation With IMO

The European Council has adopted a new law to improve stability requirements for ro-ro ferries.

The proposal to revise the existing directive originated from maritime accidents, such as the sinking of the Estonia in 1994. Ut It now ensures, as far as possible, consistency with the applicable international standards for the stability of damaged passenger ships recently updated in SOLAS - the IMO has introduced a probability of survival after a collision model for assessing the survivability of damaged ro-ro passenger ships, as well as new related requirements.

However, the new IMO standards are not completely in line with the requirements already in force in the EU for smaller new vessels. Therefore, the new law is designed to maintain a level of safety requirements equivalent to existing EU law for those ships.

The revised directive also aims to strengthen fleet entry requirements within the EU for existing large vessels that have not yet been certified in the EU. The text of the new directive maintains the general purpose of the initial Commission proposal, except for the extension of the transposition deadline from 12 to 18 months.

The new directive will be published in the EU’s Official Journal shortly and will enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication. 

Member states will have 18 months to transpose the directive into their national legislation.