On discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Maritime Safety Agency for the financial year 2022

The Committee on Transport and Tourism calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

1.Welcomes the finding of the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) that the transactions underlying the accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency (the ‘Agency’) for the 2022 financial year are legal and regular in all material respects;

2.Notes that the Agency executed EUR 86.3 million in commitment appropriations representing 99.80% of the total budget of the year 2022 and EUR 85,15 million in payment appropriations (98.42 % of the total budget); welcomes that only 0.87 % of payment appropriations were cancelled, well below the 5 % ceiling set by the Commission;

3.Applauds the commitment of the Agency to enhance its multilingual communication ensuring greater accessibility for all European citizens; notes that the Agency’s five year strategy, the European Maritime Environmental and the European Maritime Safety Reports are now accessible in all 24 EU languages;

4.Welcomes the Agency’s continued implementation of its 2020-2024 strategy that will enable to fulfil its maritime surveillance, safety and security tasks while contributing efficiently to the Union’s priorities; acknowledges the Agency’s publication of the first European Maritime Transport Environmental Report, collecting verified information on the shipping’s environmental impacts;

5.Underlines the role of the Agency in the successful implementation of transition to renewable and low-carbon fuels in maritime transport; highlights the crucial role of the agency in the implementation of FuelEU Maritime regulation; supports the ongoing research on studies for sources of power for ships, with focus on biofuels, ammonia, hydrogen and the operation, safety and technological standards for fuels and technologies, the use of which is expected to be accelerated by the FuelEU Maritime initiative;

6.Salutes the Agency’s continued strengthening of its surveillance activities, including satellite and RPAS capacities; considers it an achievement that the Agency RPAS services have collectively accumulated 1305 operational days, with 828 days dedicated to multipurpose surveillance and 477 days for environmental surveillance;

7.Stresses the importance of the Agency’s activities in maritime security and requests its continued technical assistance to the Commission during inspections in this framework under Regulation 725/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on enhancing ship and port facility security; stresses a significant increase in cybersecurity incidents in the maritime sector in recent years;

8.Calls for promotion of digitalisation of the maritime sector by facilitating the electronic transmission of data, supporting simplification and providing integrated maritime surveillance and awareness systems and services to the Commission and the Member States;

9.Welcomes the Agency’s leadership in the transitional phase of Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) to enhance civilian and military cooperation; this involves establishing a permanent connection between CISE and the navies of EU Member States, either through MARSUR or directly connected through the national node;

10.Commends the Agency’s Maritime Support Services for developing ad hoc products to assist the Member States and the Commission in the implementation of EU sanctions related to the illegal and unjustified Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, such as reporting on ship calls for specific cargoes and flags; salutes that the Agency has developed and provides to relevant users a monthly report on the impact of developments in Ukraine on maritime traffic and trade;

11.Salutes the extension of the BC Sustainable Energy Association project until 30 September 2022 due to the illegal and unjustified Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, to deliver a targeted action for the purchase of anti-pollution equipment in support of Georgia and Ukraine in the Black Sea, as well as the inception phase for the new project, which included an online training session to enable Ukrainian CleanSeaNet (CSN) Service users to benefit of the EMSA’s CSN service;

12.Commends the fact that the Agency continues to be a key partner to the Commission and Member states in developing maritime safety standards, in digitalizing and streamlining EU shipping;

13.Stresses that the EU's fleet grows (in terms of both ships and tonnage) is slower compared to the global fleet; in the last five years, the EU fleet experienced a growth of 3.4%, in contrast to the global fleet, which exhibited a more substantial growth rate of 7%;

14.Welcomes the Agency’s support to the Commission at IMO, particularly in forums such as MEPC, PPR and CCC; this supports covers crucial areas of pollution prevention and sustainability including the IMO Strategy on reducing GHG emissions, carbon intensity of shipping, safety, evaluation, deployment and use of sustainable alternative fuels and technologies, marine litter and underwater noise; highlights that the upcoming IMO work on developing the corresponding requirements and standards for the use of new fuels and technologies will be of key importance in their uptake at both global and EU level;

15.Stresses the ongoing challenge in recruiting Seconded National Experts (SNE) given the difficulty to attract experts from the Member States; points out that the Agency had some unsuccessful calls; proposes to give internal contract agents an opportunity to advance to the next function group through a general selection procedure; regarding the efficiency gains, the Agency aims and works to improve its procedures to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness for the optimal use of human and financial resources;

16.Welcomes the fact that in 2022 the Agency implemented the corrective actions following Court's 2021 procurement contract observation; following this corrective action the Court has decided to close its observation;

17. Proposes that Parliament grants the Executive Director of the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2022.