Discussion Summary—Working Group: The Prevention of Shipping Accidents

The discussion was divided in two main parts: firstly focusing on the adequacy and completeness of global regulation in shipping (with respect to law-making and enforcement); secondly, the nature and implications of EU's increasing activity in maritime safety legislation. Shipping was recognised as being an effective and clean mode of transport with a good safety record. Lawrence Barchue noted the positive trend in the decreasing number of maritime accidents/casualties in the past 20 years. As far as rule-making is concerned, the panel agreed the scope of the maritime safety and environmental protection rules adopted by the IMO for international shipping is quite comprehensive and significantly more developed than in many other areas, such as fishing. It was considered that most relevant topics for this purpose are already regulated in the existing IMO conventions and that, in that sense, there are few outstanding 'gaps' in regulation. Keywords:environmental protection; EU; IMO; international shipping; maritime safety; Prevention; shipping accidents