THE European parliament will oppose plans to extend the role of maritime pilots to include inspection of onboard deficiencies, according to the rapporteur for the port state control directive.

Pilots’ knowledge of ships is partial and the profession should not be used to do the work of surveyors, says Dominique Vlasto, the Euro MP charged with leading the parliament’s reaction to the draft law.

The Strasbourg assembly is in favour of the directive as a whole but will push for amendments, including the deletion of the article widening deficiency reporting requirements to deepsea pilots, Ms Vlasto said. While the rapporteur’s views do not bind the parliament as a whole, they are a good indication of the assembly’s future views.

“Pilots do not know the whole vessel,” Ms Vlasto said. “They only have a partial impression.” Industry does not want pilots acting as surveyors, she said.

The port state control directive, part of a seven-strong ‘Erika 3’ package of legislation, underlines that port pilots are already obliged to report defects they come across in their line of work. The proposal now before the EU institutions would extend this provision to deepsea pilots. The commission thought this necessary in the wake of the Prestige oil spill disaster, when defects spotted by a pilot were not acted upon.

Maritime industries have expressed concerns about the proposed changes, suggesting that pilots encourage rather than ensure that deficiencies are reported.

The European Community Shipowners’ Association said the EU institutions should also pay “careful consideration” to “potential financial liability” issues for pilots arising from the proposal.

“In addition,” Ecsa said, “the proposed new role of pilots should not have the consequence of giving them a public service status; they must remain a commercial service.”

Deepsea pilo1ts, many of whom work on an optional rather than a compulsory basis, are known to be worried about potential for the directive to interfere in their relationship with shipmasters.

In a letter to Lloyd’s List Dennis Robinson, a UK-based deepsea pilot, pointed out that deepsea pilot services available to the shipmaster in the English Channel, North Sea and the Baltic Sea are not compulsory.

“That being the case, how many shipmasters or their companies will continue to utilise our services if they think that we are going to ‘shop’ them to the nearest port state control at the first opportunity?

“The short answer to that is none, and in very short order, every deepsea pilot, North Sea or Baltic, will find himself unemployed.”

The European Maritime Pilots Association said yesterday that it had met with commission officials to explain the difference between compulsory and optional pilotage.