The European Commission sent out reasoned opinions to 4 European countries for failing to communicate with Brussels and update on the measures taken to impliment a directive that investigates accidents at sea.

The UK, Austria, Greece and Poland have all already received a formal notice for not updating the European Commission on their plans and actions to transpose European Union shipping safety obligations into domestic law.

However, a spokesman for the Department of Transport told Lloyds List that Britain is already operationally compliant, but is yet to issue their measures to the Commission: “while we recognise that the UK has missed the deadline for transposition, we will be aiming to fully transpose the directive as soon as possible and will respond to the commission shortly to explain how this will be done.”

A similar reasoned opinion has been sent to Italy, who have failed to impliment a similar Directive covering safety standards specifically for passenger ships. Directive 2010/36/EU is an amendment of 2009/45/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on Safety Rules and Standards for Passenger Ships. This directive includes a ban on materials containing asbestos, the obligation to install emergency lighting allowing passengers to exit safely and a requirement for adequate life jackets for larger persons.