Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/204 of 28 October 2022 laying down technical specifications, standards and procedures for the European Maritime Single Window environment pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 establishing a European Maritime Single Window environment and repealing Directive 2010/65/EU (1), and in particular Articles 5(10), 6(4), 11(3), 14(4), 15(4) and 16(6) thereof,

After consulting the Digital Transport and Trade Facilitation Committee,

Whereas:

(1) The maritime national single windows should provide declarants graphical user interfaces with all the functionalities needed to fulfil the reporting obligations listed in the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2019/1239. To ensure a similar user experience, a common list of functionalities should be defined and those functionalities should be available to declarants in all Member States. However, to minimise costs and ensure compatibility with existing interfaces, Member States can offer additional functionalities in their graphical user interface.

(2) Digital spreadsheets are widely used in the maritime sector. They help declarants with the manual input of data and to fulfil their reporting obligations. To ensure declarants can reuse spreadsheet templates in different maritime national single windows, characteristics of spreadsheets should be harmonised, and the versions of spreadsheets should be managed centrally by the Commission. Moreover, when spreadsheet templates are compliant with the harmonised characteristics and the requirements of the EMSWe data set, they should be accepted by all graphical user interfaces, regardless of the language used.

(3) Technical specifications to make arrival and departure times of ships available should cover both user-to-system and system-to-system communication This will enable users along the logistics chain to benefit from arrival and departure times of ships (made public in an electronic format) and to guarantee harmonisation at EU level.

(4) A common structure for the support websites should be defined, including its functionalities. This will ensure a similar user experience across all maritime national single windows. A common structure will also help provide the appropriate support and information on the processes and technical requirements for maritime national single windows and their interfaces.

(5) The internet addresses of the maritime national single windows should use a common future-proof format of domains and subdomains to help users navigate, taking into account the existing internet addresses used in Member States. In order to facilitate the accessibility of the maritime national single windows, the Commission, in collaboration with the Member States, should establish and maintain a list of internet addresses.

(6) To ensure a proper functioning and prompt availability of the EMSWe ship database, the common location database and the common hazmat database, system security measures and minimum system performance requirements should be set out.

(7) To ensure that ship identification information and particulars can be collected, stored, updated, and made available quickly, the EMSWe ship database should be able to communicate with the maritime national single windows, using system-to-system and user-to-system communication. Any change in ship identification information and particulars, based on the data submitted by declarants to a maritime national single window, should be reflected in the EMSWe ship database.

(8) Ship reporting exemptions are issued by the relevant authorities and are not requested from declarants during a port call. As this information is already available in the SafeSeaNet system (2), the EMSWe ship database should be able to connect to it, retrieve this information automatically, and make it available to the maritime national single windows.

(9) To ensure location codes and port facility codes can be collected, stored, updated and made available quickly, the common location database should be able to send information to the maritime national single windows, using system-to-system and user-to-system communication. The common location database should be synchronised with other relevant sources of information.

(10) To ensure hazmat reference information can be collected, stored, updated and made available quickly, the common hazmat database should be able to send information to the maritime national single windows, using system-to-system and user-to-system communication. The common hazmat database should be synchronised with other relevant sources of information, including the MAR-CIS database (3) developed by European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

(11) EMSA should assist the Commission set up the EMSWe ship database, the common location database and the common hazmat database, considering the synergies with the existing databases managed by EMSA and its objective to contribute to the overall efficiency of maritime transport as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4).

(12) The EMSWe Regulation empowers the Commission to adopt implementing acts to lay down a list of relevant information in the entry summary declaration referred to in Article 127 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) to be made available to the maritime national single windows. As the EMSWe Regulation is specifically limited to the maritime domain, only the entry summary declarations defined in columns F10, F11, F12 and F13 of Annex B to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 (6) lodged by sea carriers or their representatives at declaration header and master consignment level, including master consignment goods item information, should be considered relevant. This means that entry summary declarations lodged by actors other than those mentioned above or information at house consignment level should not be considered relevant.

(13) Information in the entry summary declaration to be made available to the maritime national single windows should only come from the commercial and transport documents, issued by the sea carrier, that may be requested in other reporting obligations in connection with that port call. In order to ensure the interoperability of the data exchanged, this information should be mapped to the data elements in the EMSWe data set provided for under Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239.

(14) Since Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 applies from 15 August 2025, this Regulation should apply from the same date,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation, the definitions set out in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 shall apply. The following definitions shall also apply:

— ‘formality’ means a coherent set of data elements to be reported by a declarant to the maritime national single window in order to fulfil one or more reporting obligations,

— ‘user desktop’ means an area in the graphical user interface of the maritime national single window that requires a natural person to perform authentication by entering login credentials,

— ‘spreadsheet’ means an electronic document in which data is arranged in rows and columns and that may be manipulated and used in calculations,

— ‘spreadsheet file’ means an electronic file that contains one or more spreadsheets,

— ‘data cell’ means an intersection of a row and a column in a spreadsheet with a unique address made up of its column letter and row number for the purpose of data input,

— ‘ship record’ means a collection of data elements about the same ship stored in the EMSWe ship database.

Article 2

Provisions for the harmonised interfaces

The common functionalities of the graphical user interface and the content of the harmonised digital spreadsheet templates referred to in Article 6(4) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 are set out in Annex I to this Regulation.

Article 3

Provisions for the maritime national single windows

The technical specifications for making arrival and departure times available referred to in Article 5(10) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 are set out in Annex II to this Regulation.

The harmonised structure for the support website referred to in Article 5(10) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 is set out in Annex III to this Regulation.

The uniform format for internet addresses referred to in Article 5(10) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 is set out in Annex IV to this Regulation.

Article 4

Other common services

The technical specifications, standards and procedures for setting up the EMSWe ship database referred to in Article 14(4) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 with respect to collecting, storing, updating and providing ship identification information and particulars, as well as records on ship reporting exemptions are set out in Annex V to this Regulation.

The technical specifications, standards and procedures for setting up the common location database referred to in Article 15(4) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 with respect to collecting, storing and providing location and port facility codes are set out in Annex VI to this Regulation.

The technical specifications, standards and procedures for setting up the common hazmat database referred to in Article 16(6) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 with respect to collecting, storing and providing hazmat reference information are set out in Annex VII to this Regulation.

Article 5

List of relevant information in the entry summary declaration

The information of the entry summary declaration listed in Annex VIII to this Regulation is limited to the entry summary declaration particulars defined in columns F10, F11, F12 and F13 of Annex B of Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 at declaration header and master consignment level, including master consignment goods item information, which are lodged directly by the sea carrier or its representative. The remaining information of the entry summary declaration shall not be made available to the maritime national single window.

The list of relevant information in the entry summary declaration referred to in Article 127 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 to be made available to the maritime national single window according to Article 11(3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 is set out in Annex VIII to this Regulation.

Article 6

Entry into force and application

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply as from 15 August 2025.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 28 October 2022.

For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1) OJ L 198, 25.7.2019, p. 64.

(2) https://www.emsa.europa.eu/ssn-main.html.

(3) https://www.emsa.europa.eu/mar-ice-network/mar-cis-infosheets.html.

(4) Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency (OJ L 208, 5.8.2002, p. 1).

(5) Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code (OJ L 269, 10.10.2013, p. 1).

(6) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 of 28 July 2015 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards detailed rules concerning certain provisions of the Union Customs Code (OJ L 343, 29.12.2015, p. 1).