28 September - 4 October 2000

Malta would make the EU a world player in shipping

by Ivan Brincat

The addition of the shipping registers of European Union candidate countries Malta and Cyprus would result in an increase in tonnage for the EU and place the organisation in a position of global security. This was stated by former minister Michael Frendo writing in the reputed Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly.

Dr Frendo said that EU membership for Malta and Cyprus will provide the EU with a remarkable opportunity to reassert itself as a major player on a world scale. It will also signify the return to the fold of tonnage, which, for the past decades, has been flowing out of the European Union.

Dr Frendo, who is managing partner of Gatt Frendo Tufigno Advocates and a former minister responsible for shipping, said in an article on the future of open registers in the European Union that from third country open registers, Malta and Cyprus will become Community registers upon membership.

He said these would retain their nature as traditional open registers. "They remain registers which retain some, but certainly not all, the characteristics of an open registry flag, they will allow ownership and/or control by non-citizens, they provide easy access to register, taxes on income from ships are not levied locally, the country of registration is a small power and receipts are important for its income, and the manning of ships by non-nationals is freely permitted."

Dr Frendo said the tonnage which today is outside the EU and which represents in a large part, beneficial owners which are EU companies or nationals, will again be integrated once more within the European Union.

He said the Malta Registry of Shipping suffered, for a time, from its exponential growth and it needed urgently to match that growth with

the strength of an administrative worldwide network to ensure enforce-ment of its rules and regulations.

The former minister said Malta has an obligation towards safety arising from its existence as a Shipping Registry whether or not it becomes a member of the European Union. "It will have to ensure that it fully endorses and implements the Community Maritime Safety Acquis which, however, is largely based on IMO standards," he said.

Dr Frendo said the removal of sub-standard shipping is an objective which belongs to the European Union and to all serious registers which are intent on retaining and upgrading the reputation of the flag.