The peculiarities of the interaction of various shipping companies on the Black Sea are regulated by various official documents and agreements, which prescribe the rights, obligations and restrictions of each of the parties necessary for successful, effective and safe cooperation. One of these official documents signed by the parties was the Black Sea Memorandum, which regulates mutual understanding related to control exercised by the state of the Black Sea MoU port.

What is the Black Sea Memorandum? Why is it so necessary for successful interaction between domestic and foreign shipping companies?

Black Sea MOU - European level of interaction

Today, the Black Sea Memorandum allowed Black Sea MOU to make its work not only effective, but also orderly. So, according to the report of this state instrument that monitors the movement of ships in the Black Sea, inspectors checked 5080 ships, and among them 184 were detained, because significant violations were revealed on board.

Among the main violators who were detained by inspectors until the complete elimination of various violations and inconsistencies are ships from the Russian Maritime Register.

The official document itself was signed by all parties to the agreement on April 7, 2000, and 6 states acted as parties that took part in the signing of the Black Sea Memorandum. The signed official document stipulates the creation and work of a special Port Control Committee holding mandatory annual meetings and discussing the achieved goals and tasks that still need to be implemented.

An important factor associated with the status of observers for the work of the Port Control Committee is that such a situation, according to the memorandum, can only be obtained by the maritime authorities of individual states, as well as some international government organizations.

The whole essence of the Black Sea Memorandum comes down to strengthening the control of states owning seaports, unifying port control in the Black Sea and preventing violations of international law in the field of passenger and cargo transportation by sea. In the maritime community, this official document was the eighth in a row.

According to the decision between the participating states, every year up to 15% of sea vessels that call at Black Sea ports under a foreign flag should be subjected to careful port control. Although according to international regulations, each vessel must undergo inspection and inspection at least 1 times every 6 months, additional port control, according to the current memorandum, allows detecting serious violations in the technical condition of the vessel or crew rights on the part of the shipowner. This approach has already brought its obvious results, because a huge number of ships that passed port control were detained by employees of the inspection port service, due to the violations identified. This allowed shipowners to quickly and effectively eliminate them in order to continue their activities, and sailors whose rights were violated to return to their usual mode of work.

Although the participants in the Black Sea memorandum did not initially include such a clause in the official document, practice has shown that the most common violation by the owners of shipping companies is the delay or non-payment of wages to ship crew members. Therefore, later, such an innovation was added, and inspectors inspecting ships, ships, tankers and dry cargo ships in the Black Sea, within the framework of the ongoing control, began to detain and on the basis of such a gross violation, which is spelled out in the ILO Consolidated Convention on Labor in Maritime Shipping (MLC).

Today, all ship owners, sailors, port employees and other workers directly or indirectly related to shipping should carefully study this official document posted on the website of the Black Sea Memorandum. Each of the points of this document was prepared carefully, for a long time and with the approval of many participants in the Black Sea memorandum. The Black Sea Memorandum website presents the full text of this document, with all the amendments made. Today, such a document continues to be a reliable and effective basis for high-quality control of ships in the Black Sea.