Azerbaijan closes a successful maritime safety project

This Ports Law, in addition to regulating the activities of the merchant marine in Azerbaijan and construction and safety of its ports, is helping the country achieve its goal of redesigning and modernizing, based on international standards, the maritime legislation it inherited from the former Soviet Union. To draft this Law, Azerbaijan has counted on the support of a project on maritime safety and protection of the marine environment financed by the European Union and led by the FIIAPP over the past two years.

This project has not only helped the country to promote this Lawbut also to work in a general sense on national legislation that will serve as a bridge between the current Azerbaijani maritime administration and the international framework. Azerbaijan’s intention to adopt international standards to improve its maritime safety and prevent pollution is justified by its context: each year, this country must control the traffic of 9,500 ships because of its coastal location on the Caspian Sea and its role as an exporter of crude oil and natural gas, in addition to managing 35 tonnes of maritime traffic.

“Here the maritime administration is very young (2006), but, despite this, it has 26 signed International Maritime Organization (IMO) conventions, putting it at the level of Brazil and Argentina, and, since we’re talking about the European framework, it has more than even Austria. Azerbaijan is a country that is making a significant effort in maritime legislation. We are here to help them develop all of this legislation they need so that all of these conventions they have signed are reflected in their own national legislation with tools for controlling emissions and spills or to be able to impose penalties, for example”, explains the FIIAPP expert responsible for coordinating the project in Azerbaijan, Fernando Collado.

This twinning project, financed with 900,000 euros, came to a close today. Now the challenge for Azerbaijan, besides continuing down this road of international adaptation, lies in establishing a control mechanism to enforce its legislation. “We’re going to have all the legislation to be able to do things, but there won’t be an administrative enforcement part. We’re going to have the tools to require people to do things a certain way, but then there won’t be a way to penalize those that don’t comply. As soon as this legislation exists, this will translate into a situation where those who pollute will have to pay and will be penalized, and this will be reflected in the cleanliness of the beaches and of the water”, asserts Collado.