EC banned 19 ships in past 10 months

EC banned 19 ships in past 10 months    The European Commission said Friday its coast guard authorities have banned 19 ships from European Union ports between Nov. 1, 2003 and Aug. 31.
   Most of the banned ships were bulk carriers (12 out of the 19), but there were also four roll-on/roll-off passenger ships, two chemical tankers and one oil tanker. The ships flew the flags of eight different states: St. Vincent and the Grenadines (six); Bolivia, Panama and Turkey (three); and Belize, Cyprus, Romania and Syrian Arab Republic (one each).
   “The ban on entering EU ports was imposed on these ships because they were detained several times and they were flying a flag included in the black list published as part of the annual report of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control,” the European Commission said.
   The list of the ships is available online at https://www.emsa.eu.int/end900d002d007d001.html. Publication of this information is required under new European rules on port state control to ensure transparency and to deter those who already fall short of the relevant maritime safety standards.
   In parallel, at the request of the European Commission, the European Maritime Safety Agency publishes on its Web site a regularly updated list of ships banned from EU ports.