THE European Parliament's Transport Committee has adopted the European Commission's proposal to set up a 'single window' to enable shipping lines to communicate with Europe's national maritime authorities.
At present, carriers and their agents use myriad port community systems and national single windows across the European Union to report shipping data.
While the commission's proposal would allow national windows to continue operating, it would require their connection through a centralised EU 'common access point interface.'
Ocean carrier organisations, such as the World Shipping Council (WSC) and European Community Shipowners Associations (ECSA), 'strongly support' the EU maritime single window proposal, reported American Shipper.
'This would in no way replace the national single windows, nor interfere with their decision-making or the availability of data for individual ports. Nor would it jeopardise the safety of the crew, the vessel and its cargo or the port,' said ECSA secretary general Martin Dorsman.
'It would simply route data directly from the maritime operator to the relevant national single window via one EU router and then relay back to the shipping company any responses from that national single window,' he said.
'The benefit of a common EU access point is to eliminate any potential for divergent system requirements or deployment schedules that could happen with national deployments of the module over time.'
While the European Sea Ports Organization (ESPO) generally supports the single window initiative, it warned of potential costs and administrative burdens related to rolling out the single maritime reporting platform.
'We hope that the negotiators will go back to the commission proposal on that point and will understand that adding on layers will not facilitate but complicate the maritime reporting environment,' said ESPO Secretary General Isabelle Ryckbost.
The organisation said 'considerable investments' will be required by the EU to develop the single window that connects to the national windows.
'At the same time, ports which have already developed, bottom up, sophisticated and innovative systems for receiving, managing and reusing data, will not give up these state-of-the-art reporting channels, since these are fulfilling a lot more services than the reporting of the formalities falling under the scope of the current proposal,' ESPO added.
WORLD SHIPPING
At present, carriers and their agents use myriad port community systems and national single windows across the European Union to report shipping data.
While the commission's proposal would allow national windows to continue operating, it would require their connection through a centralised EU 'common access point interface.'
Ocean carrier organisations, such as the World Shipping Council (WSC) and European Community Shipowners Associations (ECSA), 'strongly support' the EU maritime single window proposal, reported American Shipper.
'This would in no way replace the national single windows, nor interfere with their decision-making or the availability of data for individual ports. Nor would it jeopardise the safety of the crew, the vessel and its cargo or the port,' said ECSA secretary general Martin Dorsman.
'It would simply route data directly from the maritime operator to the relevant national single window via one EU router and then relay back to the shipping company any responses from that national single window,' he said.
'The benefit of a common EU access point is to eliminate any potential for divergent system requirements or deployment schedules that could happen with national deployments of the module over time.'
While the European Sea Ports Organization (ESPO) generally supports the single window initiative, it warned of potential costs and administrative burdens related to rolling out the single maritime reporting platform.
'We hope that the negotiators will go back to the commission proposal on that point and will understand that adding on layers will not facilitate but complicate the maritime reporting environment,' said ESPO Secretary General Isabelle Ryckbost.
The organisation said 'considerable investments' will be required by the EU to develop the single window that connects to the national windows.
'At the same time, ports which have already developed, bottom up, sophisticated and innovative systems for receiving, managing and reusing data, will not give up these state-of-the-art reporting channels, since these are fulfilling a lot more services than the reporting of the formalities falling under the scope of the current proposal,' ESPO added.
WORLD SHIPPING