Europe takes Spain to court over port security

Europe’s port security plan aims to provide protection for ships and port facilities as per Directive 2005/65/EC, helping to guarantee uniformly high levels security in all European ports and counter terrorist attacks.

Despite launching an action plan nationally, the Spanish authorities failed to meet the deadline set for the end of 2013.

Spain will now be brought before the Court of Justice at a date to be confirmed.

And it’s not only Spain that the EC is clamping down on.

The Commission has also requested that Italy fully implement the Passengers’ rights Regulation for sea and inland waterways services/cruises to and from Italian ports.

Apparently the country has not yet set up a national authority to handle complaints from passengers and to enforce the Regulation. Furthermore, it has failed to lay down rules on penalties in case of breaches of the Regulation.

The Regulation sets out the rights of passengers travelling by sea and inland waterways in the EU and it became applicable on 18 December 2012, the date by which all Member States were bound by law to fulfil the requirements.

Italy has two months to notify the Commission of the measures taken to apply the regulation correctly, otherwise the Commission may also decide to refer Italy the EU’s Court of Justice.