Erika, a Watershed in International Maritime Governance

This chapter focuses on the political drama that unfolded during and after the sinking of Erika off France in late 1999 and the couple of years that followed. It demonstrates how the entire international regulatory regime for maritime safety came under intense scrutiny. It argues that, while many industry insiders—both private and governmental—reacted to the Erika accident by looking for causes confined to the vessel, French authorities and the EU institutions tended to see a failure of the regime itself as the real reason for the Erika incident and the many others that had preceded it. An important aspect of the chapter is therefore the outlining and discussion of how the questioning of the maritime safety regime’s key components came about—more forcefully and in new forms—in part because of new entrants to the debate. The prominent role played by France will be examined in some detail. Furthermore, emphasis will be put on analysing the post-Erika amendments to EU legislation already adopted on the activity of classification societies. Through these changes, the classification societies—primarily in their capacity as EU recognised organisations (ROs)—were for the first time brought into the regulatory limelight and became subject to direct EU regulation. These developments are explored and analysed with a focus on both the systemic implications this had for classification societies themselves, the roles they perform, and for the international IMO-centred regime they operate within. In parallel, the impact on shipping from the EU’s wider integration and institution-building processes are brought into the frame. In this context the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) will be outlined and analysed as a significant step in EU integration but equally so for the international maritime safety regime.