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Mobility and Transport
News article3 March 2020Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport

The European Commission and the US Coast Guard sign a Memorandum of Cooperation for oversight of mutually recognised organisations for survey and certification of Commerc

U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington DC: RDML Richard Timme, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy and Magda Kopczynska, Director for waterborne, European Commission

U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington DC: RDML Richard Timme, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy and Magda Kopczynska, Director for waterborne, European Commission

The European Commission has signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) with the U.S. Coast Guard. The Memorandum provides a framework for sharing and coordinating information, activities and best practices for oversight of recognised organisations that carry out inspection and certification of commercial vessels on behalf of both the United States and EU governments.

Sharing information improves the oversight the European Union and the United States utilise to measure and verify the performance of these recognised organisations, helping to increase transparency and safety. It also relieves the regulatory burden on recognised organisations by potentially reducing the need for duplicate oversight activities. Cooperative agreements such as this between IMO Member States is encouraged by the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) Code for Recognised Organisations. This Memorandum could also serve as a model for future agreements between the parties to this Memorandum and other IMO Member States.

Currently, the U.S. Coast Guard and the European Union both recognise and work with the following Recognised Organisations': American Bureau of Shipping, Lloyd’s Register, DNV-GL, Bureau Veritas, RINA Services, Class NK and the Indian Register of Shipping.

Details

Publication date
3 March 2020
Author
Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport