Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CENTRALISED and simplified European Union (EU) procedure for granting recognition of seafarer training certificates issued by non-EU countries has been tabled by the European Commission. It wants to prevent Member States from having to assess individual certificates that allow non-EU seafarers to work on board EU ships.…

Keith Nuthall
A PROPOSED directive has been tabled by the European Commission that would criminalise careless or malicious pollution by ships of any flag, with jail sentences being made available in serious cases, for the master, owner, operator, charterer, and even the classification society of a vessel.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court (ICC) has welcomed the conviction of a band of pirates in an Indian court, as a welcome and rare example of a country prosecuting piracy in international waters. Seven-year labour camp sentences were handed down to 14 Indonesian pirates for hijacking the Japanese-owned Alondra Rainbow off Indonesia in October 1999, along with its aluminium ingot cargo.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has clarified rules for issuing visas to non-EU seamen travelling across the Schengen zone of Europe, where countries share common border controls. In future, transit visas will be issued at EU entry points to groups of seamen travelling together, where they are of the same nationality and their journey period is limited.…

Keith Nuthall
A CRIMINAL group based in the Lebanon is stealing multi-million dollar cargoes, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has warned. It has reported that the group is running at least two vessels off the eastern Mediterranean, north African, and west African coasts, which they use to divert cargoes from their agreed destination.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce has drawn up global guidelines for customs officials worldwide, to promote the efficient and secure handling of containers at a time when controls are being tightened to fight terrorism. The advice has been submitted to the World Customs Organisation and national customs administrations; they include a checklist of good practice, such as greater reliance on sophisticated risk assessment and control techniques.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission and the Algerian government are to cooperate to ensure that sub-standard shipping does not ply the seaways of the Mediterranean, notably through the phasing out of old single hull tankers.

European Union (EU) transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio and Algeria’s transport minister Abdelmalek Sellal agreed at a meeting in Algiers that a joint group of experts should draw up a cooperation programme on improving maritime safety.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice against France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Italy, alleging that they have failed to write into their national legislation European Union rules limiting the working hours of seafarers on ships calling at EU ports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to negotiate away any legal or bureaucratic barriers that might prevent non-European Union foreign nationals from establishing travel agencies in any EU Member State. The stance has been taken in its draft offer to the ongoing World Trade Organisation talks on the liberalisation of the world’s trade in services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is moving towards taking possible legal action against the Danish government over its restrictions on the ownership of the privatised Copenhagen Airports group. The rules of the privatisation of the Danish capital’s airports insist that no shareholder may own more than 10 per cent of the company, except for Denmark’s government, which currently owns 33.8 per cent, a blocking minority of shares.…