The new EU rules on watercraft have been in effect for the last four months but worryingly little more than half of the 28 EU Member States have transposed the Directive’s requirements into national law it is reported.
Among those who have been holding back, there are countries with strong boatbuilding and equipment manufacturing activity and reputations, such as France and Germany, who are facing internal legal issues that have been holding back the transposition.
The explanation provided by the UK government is described as a “normal administrative backlog” but certainly the Brexit debate is not helping either. Poland sees some light at the end of the tunnel, where the legislative works are ongoing and the Directive has been partially transposed.
European Boating Industry is also concerned by the lack of progress from national administrations in the notification of conformity assessment bodies under the new Directive 2013/53/EU. At the time of writing, only 12 notified bodies are currently able to assess and certify products under the new Directive and some big names used in the boating industry such as RINA, Lloyd’s Register, ICNN and IMCI are still not appearing despite all having filed their applications for the new accreditation.
On the positive side, 16 countries at time of writing (namely Italy, Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Denmark, Czech Republic) have transposed the Directive.
Following the adoption of the new Directive on watercraft 2013/53/EU, Member States were given 24 months to adapt their laws to meet the deadline of 18 January 2016. The EU RCD Guide available in nine languages provides all the much needed information to manage this transition smoothly before 18 January 2017.
