Vice-President Siim Kallas, European Commissioner for Transport today was briefed by the board of the European Cruise Council about cruise ship safety. Vice President Kallas announced that the Commission strongly supports a passenger ship safety review at IMO (International Maritime Organisation) to ensure that European citizens can expect state of the art safety measures in place – no matter where they board a passenger ship. The EU Transport Commissioner outlined the need for a twin-track approach with the IMO. Following its ongoing passenger ship safety review, the EU will either propose re-enforcing recent IMO standards or propose new EU minimum norms, some of which could form the basis for new IMO standards.The following steps are planned next:The Commission services will launch a public consultation process on the passenger ship safety, legislative review, during spring 2012 (April 2012). The Vice President will host, in spring 2012 a conference with stakeholders on the Safety of Passenger Ships. Following the Costa Concordia accident, the IMO has announced that it will consider issues relating to the safety of passenger ships, at the IMO Maritime Safety Committee meeting from 16-25 May 2012. The Commission will bring forwards, if necessary, proposals to adapt existing rules on the safety of passenger ship safety to new developments in the sector before the end of the year. The Vice President will provide more detail about the possible content and timing of his proposals before Summer 2012.Source: EUC press release RAPID IP/12/97 of 03/02/2012