Automatic translation
Improving the quality of shipping
In November 1997, a campaign was launched by the European Commission and the UK government to improve the quality of shipping and to unite all maritime actors involved in all areas of crewing and maritime business to improve maritime safety. This desire was based on a dialogue between all representatives of the maritime industry and government regulators, naturally on a voluntary basis. As this Campaign has shown, a key obstacle to improving the quality of services in shipping has been the lack of transparency and low availability of information related to the quality of ships and their operators.
And although at that time a lot of information and facts were collected, all this was scattered and often there were difficulties with access to it. A conference on the quality of shipping in Lisbon (June 1998) presented a solution to this problem. It voiced the opinion of leading professionals in the transport industry (including ship owners, cargo owners, insurers, brokers, crewing agents, agents, representatives of the largest cargo ports, terminals, etc.) on the need to make this information as accessible as possible to a wide range of people.
The European Commission and the French Maritime Administration decided to jointly develop an information system as a solution to this problem, which would combine all submitted and constantly updated information on safety on ships from public and private sources and make it easily accessible on the World Wide Web.
Equasis implementation
The implementation of the "Equasis" information system was based on the following principles:
Equasis should become a system aimed at increasing the quality of shipping and should be limited to information related to the safety of navigation and work at sea;
Equasis does not carry any commercial basis; this system solves problems of public concern and must act in accordance with this principle;
Equasis is to become a nationwide database covering the entire global fleet;
For its correct functioning, the principles of active cooperation on the part of each representative of the maritime industry should be laid in the foundations of the work;
Equasis should be used to improve and simplify the choice of vessels, but on a purely voluntary basis, without any legal pressure on the maritime industry for selfish purposes.
The creation and effective functioning of "Equasis" should ensure a high-quality exchange of impartial information and increase transparency in the field of maritime transport, which in this case will allow entities engaged in maritime transportation and crewing to receive truthful and complete information about the activities of ships and maritime organizations with which they cooperate.
The Equasis website (https://www.equasis.org/) was launched on May 17, 2000.
Initially, the two founding members, France and the European Commission, shared the development and operating costs of Equasis.
In 2002, the first Equasis Memorandum of Understanding was signed. It has been approved by a small number of quality-oriented maritime administrations as a first step towards gradually incorporating other administrations with a similar philosophy. Among us were: the European Commission and the maritime administrations of France, Singapore, Spain, Great Britain and Japan. The United States of America was also associated with the project, initially accepting observer status until the next memorandum was signed in 2011.
Since then, other maritime administrations have joined the project. The “Members” of the Steering Committee are appointed by the Maritime Administrations that have signed the Equasis Memorandum of Understanding.
The steering committee decides and finances the Equasis project, and its composition is aimed at ensuring the appropriate geographical distribution.
As such, Equasis is exclusively publicly funded and provided free of charge to all users around the world. These two characteristics are unique to the maritime community and give Equasis a special role in the maritime and crewing industry.
The list of participants is not exhaustive and Equasis is still looking for other maritime administrations to join the Steering Committee to increase the financial capacity of the Equasis project, increasing the proper geographic balance and highlighting Equasis' global mandate.
By supporting this government project, the administrations are strengthening their position as one of the leading organizations in ship safety, protection of the marine environment and social inclusion.
