Malta’s shipping register has been ranked 27th on the 2006-2008 White List compiled and published this week by the Paris MoU.
In EU terms, the ranking also places Malta in a distant 15th position out of the 21 EU member states included in the total list of 83 countries. Only six EU ship registers fared worse than Malta – Spain, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Austria and Bulgaria. While the Paris MoU draws up white, grey and black lists on ship safety, all EU states were safely within the white list.
Almost 5,000 inspections were carried out on Maltese flagged ships between 2006-2008, out of which 232 were detained for violations of ship safety standards. Given the size of its ship registry, the Maltese flag’s 5,000-odd inspections was the world’s second-highest and was only surpassed by ships flying the Panamanian flag, which were inspected just over 8,000 times and were detained on 667 occasions.
Malta, which has been a cooperating Paris MoU member since 2003, was moved up to the grey list in 2004 and made the white list in 2005, where it has remained since then.
The organisation carries out some 20,000 ship inspections a year across 27 MoU ports, with the aim of eliminating the operation of sub-standard ships through a harmonised system of port state control.
The ranking is worked out every three years by assessing the number of detentions each ship register has had over the time frame. Among other things, the Paris MoU inspections deal with ensuring that ships meet international safety, security and environmental standards, and that crewmembers have adequate living and working conditions.
Ships trading in the Paris MoU area – comprising 27 participating maritime administrations and covering the waters of the European coastal states and the North Atlantic basin from North America to Europe – are regularly inspected by government maritime officials to ensure that high standards are maintained.
A good ranking on the Paris MoU list is regarded as an industry standard and is used as an indicator of the quality of a state flag. A flag’s ranking is taken into account when targeting ships for inspection, and ships flying flags listed on the black list are liable to be banned from the region after multiple detentions.
This year’s black list includes 21 flag states, two more than last year, while the white list comprises 41 flag states – three more than last year.
A “hard core” of flag states remain on the black list; most of the flags that were considered “very high risk” in 2007 have retained this ranking. The poorest performing flags are still Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Bolivia and Albania.
New on the black list are Libya, Moldova and Dominica.
Lithuania, Turkey and Japan moved up from grey to white, while Iran and the United States moved down from white to grey.
The white list represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record. Bermuda (UK), France, and the United Kingdom are placed highest in terms of performance.