Statistical returns for sea transport

Member States compile statistics on the European Union's (EU) main ports and the carriage of goods and passengers by sea. These statistics are then collated at Community level.

ACT

Council Directive 95/64/EC of 8 December 1995 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea [See amending acts]

SUMMARY

Compiling statistics at Community level helps ensure that there is a good level of knowledge of the maritime transport market and makes it possible to assess the scale and development of the traffic passing through the European Union's main ports. This Directive sets out the conditions and procedures to be applied in order to ensure that Member States collect comparable, reliable, harmonised and regular data.

Each Member State contributes to the Community statistics on sea transport by transmitting cargo and passenger information and information on the vessels calling at ports in their territory to the Statistical Office of the European Communities. In order to compile this information, Member States select ports that handle more than one million tonnes of goods or record more than 200 000 passenger movements each year. Vessels of less than 100 gross register tonnes may be excluded from the data collection.

The Annexes to this Directive specify the data to be gathered with regard to goods, passengers, vessels and ports. The Directive also provides the cargo classification, the statistical transport nomenclature and the geonomenclature to be used to identify the maritime coastal areas and the nationality, type and size of vessels.

The Commission collates the national data with the assistance of the Statistical Programme Committee.

RELATED ACTS

Commission Decision 2001/423/EC of 22 May 2001 on arrangements for publication or dissemination of the statistical data collected pursuant to Council Directive 95/64/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea (Text with EEA relevance) [Official Journal L 151 of 7 June 2001]. This Decision establishes the periodicity, confidentiality and level of detail of data published under the Directive on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea.

Report from the Commission to the Council and to the European Parliament of 20 February 2001 in accordance with Article 8 of Directive 95/64/EC [COM(2001) 93 final - Not published in the Official Journal].

Between 1997 and 2000, the implementation of Directive 95/64/EC was, on the whole, a positive experience. Setting up a reporting system in the 13 EU Member States concerned, for a total of almost 1 100 ports, involved resources and efforts at all levels: the ports, the relevant national authorities and the Commission.

In January 2000, after the transition period, the majority of the Member States were ready to produce the required statistical returns. The Commission received most of the data for the first three reference years by November 2000. However, the information gathered was incomplete, which had a negative impact on the calculation of EU totals.

Commission Decision 2000/363/EC of 28 April 2000 on rules for implementing Council Directive 95/64/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea [Official Journal L 132 of 5 June 2000].

Commission Decision 98/385/EC of 13 May 1998 on rules for implementing Council Directive 95/64/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea [Official Journal L 174 of 18 June 1998].

Last updated: 07.02.2008