EMSA THETIS helpdesk
EMSA THETIS helpdesk
Email
THETIS@emsa.europa.eu
5.11 THETIS Liability of Carriers of Passengers
Agency responsible
Data group
05. Ship Inspection Support and Port State Control
Coast Guard Functions with access
Maritime Safety Including Vessel Traffic Management
Maritime Ship and Port Security
Status of implementation
Available
Dissemination channels
Agency web interface
Point(s) of contact
Last reviewed on
Last saved on
Description
Regulation (EC) 392/2009 on the liability of carriers of passengers by sea in the event of accidents obliges all shipowners operating passenger ships in EU waters or to and from EU ports to be covered for Liability in case of accidents. The Regulation has similar legal requirements as the Athens Convention 2002, but extends the obligation to ships operating domestically in sea-areas A and B.
Data elements
Regulation (EC) 392/2009 focusses on the availability of a certificate to prove the presence of coverage for relevant claims. The inspection is delegated to Port State Control, but the Regulation also obliges Flag State to prevent ships to operate without certificate of cover.
The data therefore relates to the availability of the certificate (Y/N) and more importantly to any action taken by the competent authorities.
Legal basis
The legal basis for the inspections and recording under PSC sits in Annex IV of Directive 2009/16 on PSC. This Annex recalls the certificates and documents to be checked (where relevant) during any PSC inspection.
Scope and source of data
The data focusses on the availability of a certificate to prove liability of carriers of passengers by sea in the event of accidents, but does not look at the exact detail of the terms and conditions. This is to be monitored by the issuing entity.
Actions taken by the inspecting authority are prescribed by the Regulation and enforced by Port State Control. Actions taken are an integral part of the dataset. Any action taken by the Flag State is not covered by THETIS at this moment.
Technical implementation
THETIS serves the enforcement of the Liability Regulation through PSC. This is a web-based application funded by the Commission, managed, operated and hosted by EMSA for and on behalf of all EU Port States. All inspection data is stored centrally. Noting that not all EU ships are inspected annually, it cannot be concluded at random that all ships have a (valid) certificate.
The system:
- is used by means of a graphical interface available to authorised users;
- has a public search engine.
Inspection information regarding PSC inspections is available and searchable for consultation on a public site. However, noting that the Liability Regulation has no publication requirement, the (non) availability of the certificate is not published.
Conditions of access
Access to data and the system is divided in two distinct methods:
- Access to data: Data on recorded findings during PSC inspections can be extracted from the system by EMSA only.
- Access to the system: Each participating State has a National Coordinator within the competent authority for PSC who decides on the relevance of the request for an account, and is responsible afterwards for user management one or more accounts.
The Regulation has been placed in the remit of the Committee on Safe Seas and the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (COSS) established by Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2099/2002. Requests for data shall be directed at this Committee.