For many years Polish Register of Shipping (PRS) has been involved in the development of standards for ship safety and marine environment protection, collaborating with the Polish Maritime Administration and the Polish Port State Control (PSC).
This cooperation includes PRS training courses held for Polish PSC and Maritime Offices surveyors dedicated to e.g. MARPOL Convention requirements. PRS is also an advisor to the Ministry of Infrastructure contributing to the elaboration of Polish legislation and expressing expert opinions on developed regulations. The Society provides appraisals on maritime environment protection issues for further processing to the Polish Maritime Administration, EU bodies, HELCOM and others, with PRS staff members providing technical support to the Polish delegations to the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC).
Developing measures for preventing marine pollution from ships is not only the domain of the International Maritime Organization but it is also an important issue in European Union policies, expressed in e.g. the requirements of the EU Framework Directive on Marine Strategy, the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan and in the implementation of the EU BSR InnoShip project.
The BSR InnoShip project has been announced by the European Commission to be part of the flagship project under the Priority 4 in the EU Strategy and Action Plan for the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The project is designed to expand transnational cooperation and joint actions to promote measures to reduce air pollution from ships and port areas through the development of knowledge and
innovation-based competitiveness. Polish Register of Shipping joined the project in 2010.
Under the BSR InnoShip project, PRS will elaborate new rules for ships eligible for special additional ‘ecological-green’ notation certification that may be assigned by PRS to ships meeting the strict IMO and EU requirements for the marine environment protection.
PRS also proposed to involve the Polish Sea and River League (PSRL) and reached agreement with the organization to extend its educational scope of activity by adopting new objectives related to youth education on marine environment protection of the Baltic Sea.
PRS’s involvement in the project also meant developing cost efficiency estimations for relevant MARPOL 73/78 Annex VI regulations, certification and type approval criteria for modern marine low-emissions technologies.
The Society is going to hold a Seminar and Workshop, in 2012, which will focus on exhaust emission control technologies onboard ships and in ports, the impact of these modern low emission technologies on safe operation of marine diesel engines and boilers, as well as practical incentives for ‘ecological-green’ ship notation such as reductions in port fees.
Declared support and cooperation of the Polish Maritime Administration (Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and Maritime Offices) in implementing the BSR InnoShip project has already resulted in the honorary patronage of Anna Wypych-Namiotko,
Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Capt.Andrzej Kro´likowski, Director of Maritime Office in Gdynia over the proposed events (seminar, workshop and co-operation in the field of educating children and youths for the protection of the Baltic marine environment).