ESC welcomes successful EU negotiations on establishing the European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe). A compromise was reached in Brussels on 7 February 2019 between the Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament.
Maritime transport operators face a wide range of legal reporting requirements each time a ship arrives in or leaves a port (a port call). The fact that reporting requirements are not harmonised, either between different policy areas within Member States or between Member States, results in a heavy administrative burden on such operators. Over two million port calls are made annually in the EU. Shipping sector staff currently spend an annual total of about 4.6 million hours on reporting.
This Regulation establishing an EMSWe is, therefore, an important step forward for Member States and for ports throughout the Union.
The final agreement contains a full range of provisions tackling the lack of harmonisation between the maritime National Single Windows for ship reporting and the inefficient data-sharing environment in most Member States and within the EU as a whole.
ALDE Shadow Rapporteur Ms Gesine Meissner commented that establishing a framework for a technologically neutral, interoperable, and interconnected European Maritime Single Window environment is a very important step forward tackling administrative burdens and costs for ports or for maritime transport operators.