The Role of Port State Control in Respect to Shipowner's Mandatory Insurance for Maritime Claims

In the European Union, the increasing need to protect the safety of the sea has been transposed, over the last century, in a regulatory framework aimed at enhancing the existing measures and control procedure wich are provided to limit the presence of sub-standards ships. In this context, considering the scope of the "Third maritime safety package" and according to the regime establoshed by the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (LLMC), the Directive 2009/20/EC provided the duty of each Member State to introduce liability insurance for its shipowners in compliance with the rules of the LLMC. With regards to its scope of application, the Directive applies to ships of 300 gross tonnage or more and provides for the presence of an insurance certificate which is issued by the insurance provider and carried on board the ship. Given the background, the article intends to provide a general overview on the inspection procedures carried out by Port Authority, in the context of the Port State Control, which are aimed at verifying the presence on board and validity of the insurance certificates. Finally, a specific focus will concern the features of the New Inspection Regime, which was introduced by the Directive 2009/16/EC with the purpose of drastically reduce substandard shipping through increased compliance, common criteria and harmonized procedures for Port State Control inspections.