New database for merchant shipping
by Bella Hili
A new maritime database, Equasis, has been launched. It provides, for the first time, centralised and comprehensive information on merchant shipping. It is publicly-financed, with France and the European Commission sharing expenses equally for this year and, if necessary, for next year too. Equasis will then be moved to a self-financing footing, by charging a user fee or asking participating administrations for a membership fee.
Equasis will be managed by the French Maritime Administration, and will operate out of France. It will not generate new information, but will collate and register data from existing sites or information systems, making it available off a single platform on the Internet.
Information will include a ship's technical characteristics, history, safety management certificate, classification society, third-party liability insurer, membership of international ship-owners' associations, manning information, and the ship manager's background.
All organisations which provide this data are represented in a consultative body called the editorial board. They include port authorities in Europe, the USA, the North Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions, international classification and insurance societies, Lloyd's Register of Shipping, the International Transport Workers' Federation, and the ship-owners' associations, Intertanko and Intercargo.
The International Maritime Organisation has appointed a director to follow this work, and participates in the supervisory committee. The initial cooperators on the project are the European Commission, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, and the US Coastguard. All of them signed a memorandum of understanding last January, and are represented on the supervisory committee along with the IMO.
The decision to build and operate Equasis was born out of the Quality Shipping Conference in Lisbon two years ago, when a call was made for more accessibility of information on merchant shipping.
The Quality Shipping Campaign, which had been launched by the United Kingdom and the European Commission the year before, had been impeded by lack of transparency on the quality of merchant ships and their operators. Information has so far been scattered and difficult to get hold of.
The European Commission and the French Maritime Administration responded by developing the Equasis database, which is aimed at reducing substandard shipping, and is limited to safety-related information. It has no commercial purpose and is non-profit-making. There is no legal pressure for the merchant shipping industry to use it.
The management unit of Equasis, which is in charge of the daily operation, is located in France, as is the technical unit.
Bella Hili is shipping consultant at the Zimmermann House Group, Ta' Xbiex.
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