Maritime Chamber: Greek flag among highest positions of national registries

The Greek flag remains high on the list of national registries in terms of performance and ship control inspections.

According to the results made public during its 56th session by the relevant international body, the Paris MoU committee, the Greek flag has the third best performance of the white list with 617 inspections and only five ship detentions for 2022. The annual assessment of Paris MoU is based on the total number of inspections and bookings, for flag ships with at least 30 inspections, during a rolling 3-year period 2020-2022.

“The Greek flag is consistently in the highest positions among national registries, which highlights the high quality standards of ships flying the Greek flag. It is recalled that a higher ranking also implies fewer controls when ships dock.” states the Maritime Chamber in its post on the internet. The committee includes a total of representatives from 27 countries and the inspection results are based on overall performance while the flags are ranked based on a specific list and can be “white”, “grey” or “black”.

Ships that are included in the “black list” are subject to strict inspections in any ports they approach as previous checks show that they do not meet all international standards in matters of navigation safety, protection of the marine environment, fire safety, manning.

A total of 67 flags were included in the 2022 White, Gray and Black List, of which 39 were included in the White List, 18 in the Gray List and 9 in the Black List. Denmark retained first place on the White List while Panama dropped to second on the Gray List.

In 2019 and before the pandemic, the total number of flags on the List was 68, of which 41 were in White, 16 in Gray and 13 in Black. Comparing 2022 to 2019 shows a shift in flags from the White List to the Gray List. Blacklist reduced by four flags.

The first 15 positions of the White List

In the first 15 positions of the White List, which includes a total of 39 countries, Denmark is in first place with 1,121 inspections and 9 bookings, followed by Italy with 802 inspections and 7 bookings, Greece with 617 inspections and 5 bookings, the Netherlands 2,536 inspections and 39 bookings Norway, Singapore, Finland, Cyprus, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, Turkey, Sweden, Hong Kong, Japan, etc.

Denmark topped the list for the second time, with nine detentions in 1,121 inspections, while Italy rose from 10th place to second with seven detentions and 802 inspections and Greece from sixth place to third with five detentions in 617 inspections. Liberia fell from 16th place to 25th with 156 detentions in 4,569 inspections, while the Marshall Islands fell from 15th place to 18th, with 145 detentions in 4,703 inspections.

The Gray List includes 16 countries including Croatia, Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Korea, Morocco, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, India, Panama, Iran, Lebanon, Sweden, the Philippines, Belize, Egypt, the Islands Cook Palau, Azerbaijan, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Ukraine. With 366 arrests in 5,472 inspections, Panama was on the “grey” list of the Memorandum, falling 10 places from last time to 46th place.

The Black List includes 9 countries: Tanzania, the Comoros Islands, Sierra Leone, Vanuatu, Albania, Togo, Algeria, Moldova and Cameroon. Cameroon continued to be at the bottom of the blacklist, which is the third and lowest tier. It recorded 22 arrests in 93 inspections between 2020 and 2022 and was classified as “very high risk”, the only register to earn the suspect title. Tanzania topped the blacklist with 14 arrests in 125 checks, falling from last place on the graylist from the previous period.

From 1 July 2023 the new performance lists will be used to calculate the Ship Risk Profile.

The Paris MOU began in 1982 when 14 European countries agreed to coordinate port state inspection efforts.

The executive body, the Port State Control Committee meets once a year, or at shorter intervals if necessary.

Representatives of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Labor Organization participate as observers in the meetings of the port state control committee (ILO), as well as representatives of various cooperating maritime authorities and other regional port state control agreements.

The committee deals with matters of policy, finance and administration and is assisted by technical bodies established within the organization.

The MoU Advisory Committee (MoU) helps the Port State Control Committee to focus on key issues and in particular directs the Secretariat or the Paris MoU between meetings of the Port State Control Committee.