Member states’ ambassadors yesterday gave the presidency a mandate to negotiate with the European Parliament an amendment to rules on the assessment of ship inspection organisations, with the aim of ensuring legal certainty and securing business continuity when the United Kingdom leaves the EU.

Under the current rules, ship inspection organisations recognised at EU level must be assessed at least every two years by the Commission. In addition, each organisation has a ‘sponsor’ member state, meaning the country which initially submitted the request for recognition of the organisation and which participates in the assessment.

The UK is the initial sponsor of two organisations recognised by the EU. Following Brexit, it will no longer be in a position to participate in the assessments for those two organisations.

The draft amendment to the rules would replace the requirement that only the sponsor country participate in the assessment, with a provision allowing for the participation of any EU country which has authorised one of the recognised organisations. This would allow organisations for which the UK has acted as sponsor to continue to carry out inspections, thereby ensuring the uninterrupted safety of European ships.