The European Cruise Council commits to pursue a high level of safety on board al their vessels and to support ongoing legislative review at EU and IMO. The Commission announced its strongly support to a passenger ship safety review at IMO (International Maritime Organisation) to ensure that European citizens can expect state of the art safety measures in place - no matter where they board a passenger ship.

Vice-President and European Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas, announced that following Commission's ongoing passenger ship safety review, the EU will either propose re-enforcing recent IMO standards or propose new EU minimum norms, some of which could form the basis for new IMO standards. The Commission counts on the commitment from Cruise industry and also, strongly supports a passenger ship safety review at IMO (International Maritime Organisation) to ensure that European citizens can expect state of the art safety measures in place. The Commission is also taking into account the lessons learned from the Costa Concordia accident in this review, as announced in January 2012.

In April 2012, the Commission will therefore launch a public consultation in process on the passenger ship safety legislative review. Questions to be prioritised in the review include the stability, the design of ships and technical evolution, the passengers evacuation, the scope of EU legislation, and qualifications and training of crew.

The Commission has been working, since 2010, on a review of EU legislation on passenger ships to ensure it keeps pace with the latest evolution in design, operational procedures and technology used in this sector. The Commission will bring forwards, if necessary, proposals to adapt existing rules on the safety of passenger ship safety to new developments in the sector before the end of the year.