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ABS Newsletter: EU SRR Regulation on Ship Recycling EMSA PSC Guidelines on EU SRR Commission Notice 2020/C 349/01

ABS brings to your attention a recent development on the subject EU SRR Regulation, which enters into force on January 1, 2021, and the associated EMSA PSC Guidelines on EU SRR. Specifically:

• Under EU SRR Regulation, Article 12.6 requires a “statement of compliance shall be issued after verification of the inventory of hazardous materials by the relevant authorities of the third country whose flag the ship is flying or an organisation authorised by them, in accordance with the national requirements. The statement of compliance may be modelled on the basis of Appendix 3 to the Hong Kong Convention”.
• Under EMSA PSC Guidelines on EU SRR, section 6.2.2 Clear grounds for further inspection or control actions, a missing EU SRR Statement of Compliance (SoC) required by EU SRR Regulation constitutes “clear grounds …. for the control of the statement of compliance of a non-EU ship”.

During the last several months, ABS was engaged in discussions with the European Commission (DG Environment) on the application of the above two documents for ships of non-EU flag. In October, DG Environment advised that:

• “it is not sufficient for non-EU flagged ships to hold only an IHM certified to the Hong Kong Convention”; and (unexpectedly)
• “for non-EU ships the SoC should also be issued on behalf of the Flag State”. (a voluntary SoC issued at the request of the ship owner without any endorsement/authorization of the flag State will not be accepted).

Further, Commission Notice 2020/C 349/01, published on October 20, 2020, advised that PSC will check that all ships (new and existing) which enter EU ports have some form of documentation showing that on-board sampling was carried out for the preparation of the IHM. While this Notice is consistent for the owner to compile the IHM for ships in service under IMO’s 2015 Guidelines for the development of the Inventory of Hazardous Materials (MEPC.269(68)) and IMO’s 2012 Guidelines for the survey and certification of ships under the Hong Kong Convention (MEPC.222(64)), it goes beyond the remote desktop documentation review recommended in these Guidelines for the IHM for ships before the ship is put in service (i.e., new construction) in that it requires on-board sampling of hazardous materials.

In light of the above and with the view to mitigating possible EU port State intervention/control of non-EU flag State ships entering EU ports, ship owners should ensure that, prior to entering EU ports on/after January 1, 2021, the ship carries on board:

• a Hong Kong Convention Statement of Compliance issued by, or on behalf of, the non-EU flag with an annotation attesting to compliance with the requirements of Article 12 of the Regulation (EU) 1257/2013 on ship recycling, or documentation to this effect issued by the flag State or an organization authorized by them; and
• documentation showing that on-board sampling was carried out and monitored by the flag State or an organization authorized by them for the preparation of the IHM referenced by the Hong Kong Convention Statement of Compliance.