Inland Waterway Council
The first harmonisation of ship construction rules for inland waterways
ships was published as EC Directive 82/714 in 1982. At this time the Rhine
rules continued as a separate system of certification.
The original Directive did not contain regulations for passenger
vessels and leisure craft. This means that the majority of traditional
ships had only to comply with national regulations.
In 2006 a new EU Directive 2006/87 came into force and included all
ships of over 20m in length and those whose length x breadth x maximum
draught in metres = 100 or more; thus including passenger vessels and
leisure craft. The Directive classified inland waters into Zones 1-4 and
Zone R - the Rhine. (See Note 1)
Up until 30 December 2018 passenger and recreational ships built
before 16 June 2008 were certified with some relaxations allowed if the
relaxation did not pose a manifest danger to others. Ships certified in
this way will continue to be allowed the relaxation at certificate
renewal. (But see Note 2 below)
Ships that were not certified by 30 December 2018 are treated as a
new build and will have to comply with the full regulations contained in
the Directive. There are some transitional (date – limited) provisions
in Chapters 32 and 33.
In 2015 the EU Commission and CCNR agreed on a new common Directive
and appointed a new body, the Comité Européen pour l’Élaboration de
Standards dans le Domaine de Navigation Intérieure (CESNI), which is
responsible for agreeing construction and equipment standards for inland
vessels across European inland waterways and brings together experts
from the Member States of the European Union and the CCNR and
representatives of international organisations with an interest in
inland navigation.
In October 2018 a new system of harmonized regulations of both EU and
Rhine regulations came into force contained in ES-TRIN 2015/1 and
EC2016/1629. These rules include Chapters which can be applicable to
traditional ships and are less onerous than the full commercial
certification. These are 20 (sailing passenger vessels), 24 (traditional
ships) and 26 (recreational craft). CESNI has now further amended the
regulations with ES-TRIN 2017 and makes further proposals in ES-TRIN
2019.
Chapter 24 is particularly helpful to operators of traditional ships
but does require surveys by both a nationally approved expert and a
surveyor from an approved inspection body.
The object of the Inland Waterway Council of EMH is to continue the
development and implementation of Chapter 24 by joining CESNI as an Approved
Organisation.
All efforts undertaken by EMH have followed these prime objectives:
. to protect operating Traditional Ships from threats due to
inappropriate application of modern ship safety rules,
. to influence and control any European harmonisation processes on the
field of ship safety,
.
to enable international traffic of Traditional Ships under the
regime of European and national certification.
Members Inland Waterway Council
See all translations of the Directive
ES-TRIN 2017/1
English
Francais
Deutch
Nederlands
Traditional Craft
flowchart
Note 1 – UK, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal,
and a number of other EU countries without waterways connected to
the mainland network derogated their waterways from these Directives
but their ships that use the mainland inland waterways network
require certification. There are some relaxations for sea-going
ships temporarily using inland waters.
Note 2 – The Netherlands government has
allowed a further year for all ships to be certified, including the
'manfest danger' clause, due to a shortage of experts and docking
opportunities available in 2018. It is understood that a similar
holiday has been allowed in France.