New Era for Maritime Transport

A new era for global maritime is to be unveiled on June 2015. The European Commission adopted on June 25th the report  on the functioning  of the  Reporting  Formalities  Directive  (Directive 2010/65).  The Directive aims  to  ensure  that  by  June  2015,  vessels  entering  in  or  departing  from  EU  ports  will provide required information electronically via one single entry point – the National Single Window.

Currently, these procedures are duplicative and time consuming, resulting in costs and delays, thus making maritime  transport  less  attractive  compared  to  other  modes.  The  COM(2014)  320/25.6.2014 report  urges Member  States  to  increase  efforts  for  this  major  simplification  and  harmonization  of  the current  reporting procedures.

All Member States have done a considerable work to transfer the 2010/65 Directive. Initiatives for the National Single Window implementation have been taken, mostly building on existing platforms, technical solutions and standards. The eMAR Project is an excellent example of those efforts that combines technological solutions with research. After the European Commission’s decision, Dr. Takis Katsoulakos, Technical Director of the eMAR Project and Director of Inlecom Systems Ltd, [pictured above] mentions that: 

The FP7 projects eMAR and eCompliance are fully committed to support the Commission efforts for harmonized reporting procedures for vessels by

1. Providing the CRS data model harmonizing various developments, particularly the AnNA and ISO models, and integrating them in the e-Maritime Strategic Framework (EMSF)

2. Offering technical demonstrations to shipping companies linking their existing systems with available MSW prototypes without any further commitment for the companies themselves, 

3. Developing intelligent compliance support systems for regulators, enforcement authorities, shipping companies and ports 

The  European  Commission  recommends  that  EU  guidelines  and  technical  specifications  for  the implementation  of  the  National  Single  Windows  are  agreed  upon  and  are  considered  as  an  urgent matter  by  the  European  Coordination  Group.  In  the  absence  of  harmonized  implementation  with  non-interoperable  standards,  the  National  Single  Windows  might  differ  from  Member  State  to  Member  State, compelling industry players to develop interfaces to communicate with these systems, leading to increasing implementation costs.