On 23 November 2005 the European Commission unveiled a package of measures aimed at enhancing maritime safety and the prevention of marine pollution.
The package contained a number of proposals intended to supplement the earlier measures introduced as a result of the Erika and Prestige incidents, including the following:
Further revision of the Port State Control Directive
Updating of the Directive on Vessel Traffic Monitoring
Auditing of classification societies.
A Directive on maritime accident investigation.
A Directive instructing member states to accede to the 1996 protocol of the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (LLMC 96).
Mandatory compliance with the IMO's voluntary Flag State Audit Scheme
In 2006 a further directive was proposed in relation to civil liability for ship owners aimed at incorporating LLMC 96 into Community law but going considerably further than LLMC 96, in requiring enhanced levels of financial security and rights of direct action against insurers. In April 2008 a number of member states argued that mandatory compliance with this would generate too many additional costs for their administrations and the issues would be better dealt with at IMO level.
Member states have therefore undertaken to ratify the 1996 LLMC protocol and made a commitment to perform IMO’s voluntary flag state audit scheme and to work within IMO to make it mandatory.