Paris MOU Announced New Targeting Lists
At its 41st meeting last month, the Paris MoU Committee approved the 2007 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flag States and Recognized Organizations. These lists will take effect from 1 July 2008.
The "Black List" for 2007 contains 19 flags States, three more than last year. The 2007 "White List" includes 38 flag States, one more than last year.
A "hard core" of flag States remain on the "Black List". Most of the flags that were considered "very high risk" in 2006 have retained this ranking. The poorest performing flags are still Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Bolivia and Albania.
New on the "Black List" is Sierra Leone, in previous years this flag did not have enough inspections. Brazil disappeared from the "Black List" because less than 30 inspections were recorded. Jamaica, Mongolia, Panama and Ukraine moved from the "Grey List" to the "Black List". Morocco improved the performance from "Black" to "Grey".
Flags with an average performance are shown on the "Grey List". Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the "White List". At the same time flags at the lower end of the "Grey List" should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the "Black List" next year. India, Ireland, the Russian Federation and Vanuatu moved up from "Grey" to "White". Netherlands Antilles and Saudi Arabia moved down from "White" to "Grey". Cook Islands is new on the "Grey List". The "White List" represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record. France, Bermuda (UK) and China are placed highest in terms of performance.
A flag's ranking is taken into account when targeting ships for inspection and ships flying flags listed on the "Black list" are liable for banning from the region after multiple detentions.
The Paris MoU also agreed on the performance listing of Recognized Organizations (ROs). These organizations have been delegated with statutory responsibilities by flag States. This table uses the same method of calculation as the flag State table but counts only those detentions, which the Paris MoU considers to be directly related to a statutory survey carried out by the recognized organization.
Det Norske Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd and Registro Italiano Navale are the recognized organizations highest performing ROs.
Korea Classification Society (Korea, DPR), International Register of Shipping (USA) and Shipping Register of Ukraine have shown the lowest performance. More information can be found in the 2007 Annual Report, which will be released in July 2008.
Port State Control is a check on visiting foreign ships to see that they comply with international rules on safety, pollution prevention and seafarers living and working conditions. It is a means of enforcing compliance where the owner and flag State have failed in their responsibility to implement or ensure compliance. The port State can require defects to be put right, and detain the ship for this purpose if necessary. It is therefore also a port State's defence against visiting substandard shipping.
Regional Port State Control was initiated in 1982 when fourteen European countries agreed to co-ordinate their port State inspection effort under a voluntary agreement known as the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MoU).
Current membership includes 27 countries. The European Commission, although not a signatory to the Paris MoU, is also a member of the Committee.
Inspection reports are recorded on a central database SIReNaC located in St Malo - France, available for search and daily updating by MoU member countries. Inspection results can be viewed on the Paris MoU public website and are also provided to the Equasis public database.
The Secretariat of the MoU is provided by the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public works and Water Management and located in The Hague.
For more information on the Paris MoU on Port State Control please consult our Internet Website on the following address: http://www.parismou.org
Link to newsletter archive