Braer and Breakthrough for EU Maritime Engagement and Regulation

This chapter analyses how the European Union (EU) established itself as an actor in international maritime safety regulation during the 1990s, a decade when it was not merely influenced by processes in the outside world but also began to make its own mark in the other direction. The chapter will analyse the impact of the Braer accident, including how that event triggered a dynamic interplay between the Council under Danish presidency and a well-prepared European Commission. The chapter includes an examination of the forces and ideas which led the EU to establish a common safe seas policy in 1993, a process which has formed the backbone of its maritime safety policy ever since. Furthermore, the chapter will probe why and how the EU moved to regulate the activities of the ship (maritime) classification societies. It will assess whether the EU acted in alignment with, or in opposition to, the key principles of the international governance regime as centred around the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), with a particular eye on the balance between flag state and port state interests and jurisdictions on the one hand, and between government regulation and private industry self-regulation on the other.