The Committee of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) has improved the status of ships sailing under the Croatian flag, and in the annual report for 2013, it moved Croatia one place up on its 45-country White List to 9th place, the Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure said on Monday.
The Committee of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding 2013 report was adopted at a Committee session last week.
The Paris MoU White List contains 45 countries, Croatia being in 9th place. The Grey List contains 19 countries, and the Black List 14.
The Paris Memorandum of Understanding uses as the basic tool for measuring the performance of state flags a statistical method which is based on the percentage of inspections of a flag's ships. Taking into account the total number of inspections on a flag's ships, state flags are put on the Black, Grey or White lists.
Flags on the Black List have significantly poorer performance than the Paris MoU average, which is made up of flags on the Grey List, while flags on the White List are much better than the average according to all parameters.
The purpose of determining a flag's status according to the Memorandum criteria is to prevent the navigation of ships that do not meet the standards of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding region.
Croatia's moving up on the White List is an important success achieved primarily owing to the work of inspection services of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, the Croatian Shipping Register and Croatian shipping companies whose ships sail in international waters, the Ministry said.
In its annual report for 2013, the US Coast Guard proposed Croatia, together with Belgium and Singapore, for the best flag in the USA based on inspections of Croatian ships in US ports.
(Hina)
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