New rules to enhance and improve the safety performance of ships were adopted by the European Commission on 13 September. The rules will introduce, from 1 January 2011, a new online register to "to name and shame" shipping companies which are performing poorly on vital safety inspections (port state controls), while those with strong safety records will be given good public visibility.

On 1 January 2011, the port state control regime, i.e. technical safety inspections in ports, in the European Union will change significantly under EU Directive 2009/16/EC on port state control.

Under the new regime there will not only be EU wide harmonisation of port state control inspection standards, as currently exists, there will also be for the first time a fully co-ordinated system of all the port state safety inspections carried out in the EU.

Pan-European system of analysis and safety inspections of vessels

The new EU wide system will rely on an advanced information tool known as "THETIS", which will be operated by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). THETIS will track all safety inspections on ships carried out in ports in the EU and provide a risk analysis which will determine the frequency and priorities for inspections by the competent authorities of Member States.

The regulations adopted by the Commission specify the criteria for assessing the risk profile of ships using company performance and the flag state performance as appears in THETIS. Following this analysis, manufacturers or other industries will be able to choose the shipping companies they use for freight or passengers in full knowledge of their safety record.

The pan-European system of co-ordination and analysis will allow for a more effective use of inspection resources in ports and in particular the more effective targeting of high risk ships and companies with low safety performance. The online register will list companies whose safety performance has been low or very low for a period of three months or more. Ships on the register which are operated by companies with bad safety records of deficiencies and detentions will be subject to very frequent inspections while ships operated by companies with good records will benefit of less inspections.

Port state controls are crucial for preventing shipping disasters and the tragic loss of life and huge environmental damage that can result. Companies and states which show up as poorly performing will be subject to more intensive, co-ordinated inspections in EU ports.