The Maltese Shipping Registry, has qualified into the 14th place in the prestigious Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control ( Paris MoU ), whilst also retaining its place as Europe's top registry and the sixth best registry in the world.
The Paris MoU was initiated in 1982, when fourteen European countries agreed to coordinate their port state inspections effort under a voluntary agreement. Currently 27 countries are members of the Paris MoU and the EU Commission, although not a signatory to the Paris MoU, is also a member of the Committee.
Port State Control is an inspection on visiting foreign ships to verify their compliance with international rules on safety, pollution prevention and seafarers living and working conditions. It is a means of enforcing compliance in cases where the owner and flag State have failed in their responsibility to implement or ensure compliance. The port State can require deficiencies to be corrected and detain a ship for this purpose, if necessary.
Its white, grey and black lists presents the full spectrum and gives added value to a nation's flag and Malta has been listed in the White list section which represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record.
In the same report, flags with an average performance are shown on the grey list and their appearance on this list may serve as an incentive to improve. 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.
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