On September 13, 2024, the Congress of Deputies gave the green light to the bill that reforms the two main rules of Spanish maritime law.
Although the final approval of the text will require it to be submitted to parliamentary debate and its corresponding vote, as well as final deliberation by the Senate, the resulting text will possibly see the light before next July 2025, giving rise to significant modifications to the Revised Text of the State Ports Law and the Maritime Navigation Law.
A good part of these modifications will consist of making the system of registration of ships and vessels more attractive, in order to mitigate the relocation of vessels to other flags of convenience. Another of the objectives pursued by the reform is to adapt the Spanish maritime planning system to European and international regulations, as well as to avoid legal loopholes and duplications of issues regulated in both laws.
For this reason, and in order to reduce the possible homework for next summer, we are going to advance the most significant changes and new features that we will be able to observe.
NEWS IN THE CONSOLIDATED TEXT OF THE LAW ON PORTS AND MERCHANT MARINE (LEGISLATIVE DECREE 2/2011, OF SEPTEMBER 5)
We must highlight the creation of a simplified registration regime in the Register of Ships and Shipping Companies for recreational vessels and jet skis that are the object of commercial exploitation, especially in rentals and nautical charters.
This reform of the Spanish maritime registers is not only carried out with the aim of attracting new shipowners and vessels to their flag in Spain, but also to provide recreational boating with its own legal autonomy within the navigation activity.
Likewise, submission to Spanish regulations on safety and protection of the marine environment is introduced for those owners of recreational vessels who habitually reside in Spain even when their vessels are flagged in other States.
One of the most notable novelties is the incorporation of regulations on autonomous vessels or vessels without crew, which will be subject to the general navigation regulations and the special measures that allow the maritime and port Administration to guarantee their safety.
With regard to the state-owned port system regulated in the first book of the TRLPEMM, modifications are introduced to the works projects, revision of agreements and contracts, in the same way that certain issues affecting the occupancy rates and navigation aids for sports or recreational vessels are clarified.
NEWS IN THE MARITIME NAVIGATION LAW 14/2014
Among the proposed changes to the Maritime Navigation Act is the regulation of the clearance of vessels, previously limited to the authorisation formula. The aforementioned reform will add the concept of “authorisation”, which will allow for quick and easy access to the clearance of vessels through a responsible declaration. Furthermore, the current Certificates of Registration and the Navigation Patent will be replaced and simplified in the new Certificate of Registration, which will mean that the documentation of Spanish vessels will conform to that required in most countries and international regulations. The Maritime Navigation Act will have a new chapter on public certification of the files on the abandonment of recreational vessels, which will enable the owners of unpaid nautical-sports facilities to determine the abandonment of vessels, their auction and scrapping through a notarial procedure. Let us not forget that today the abandonment of vessels represents a serious environmental problem and a high opportunity cost for ports, dry docks and moorings.
A REFORM THAT INTERESTS ALL ECONOMIC AGENTS
Although the majority of parliamentary groups and economic agents involved agree with the reform, its approval represents a good opportunity to highlight some shortcomings and possible improvements in the regulation of maritime activities. As in the case of Feteia-Oltra (Spanish Federation of Freight Forwarders) which last October presented two amendments to the bill. The first of these amendments referred to the need to introduce changes so that port administrations become more competitive, facilitating entry and access to companies dedicated to the provision of port services. The second of these amendments refers to the need for precepts that determine the obligatory jurisdictional submission to the Spanish courts in cases of damage or loss of merchandise that occur in our country, given that in most cases these conflicts end up being settled in foreign courts with the added costs that this jurisdictional relocation entails. To conclude these lines, it should be noted that, pending the version that will finally be approved, the proposed reform reflects the government’s justified concern to update the organisation of port infrastructures and maritime activities, avoiding the regulatory immobility that we have already sinned in previous times and that has been so damaging to the competitiveness of key infrastructures for the future of the national economy.
