Following the news recently published on the registration of vessels, DGRM presents the following clarifications on the referred topics:

1 - Naming of vessels

The DGRM has never failed to approve the foreign names proposed by the shipowners, this decision being taken by the Director General of DGRM. These authorizations include Douro Azul vessels, as well as vessels from other companies, and no change has occurred in this regard.

2 - Lack of human resources in the electro-technical area and other technicians

DGRM has planned to hire 30 new staff for its different operational areas, namely for VTS, inspection area and ship registration/certification, and the different procedures are in progress. The lack of specialists in the electro-technical area is a one-off situation, having been overcome with the hiring of licensed companies and the situation will be resolved by next 1 May.

3 - Transposition of directives on the registration of ships

There is no directive to be transposed concerning the registration of ships and no legal proceedings are underway against Portugal for failure to transpose directives. What happens is that Portugal, like any other Member State, is subject to audits by the European Commission and is responding to the problems identified, particularly with regard to the Quality Management System, within the normal framework of an auditing process.

4 - Life-saving appliances

The issue of lifeboats is a very sensitive one. The rafts are either rigid or pneumatic and are assigned according to the specificities of the areas in question and the risks involved, under the terms of the legislation in force.  

5 - Registration of Madeira ships

There are currently 392 vessels in the Madeira register and 12 SOLAS vessels in the conventional register. The procedure for issuing certificates of seafarers boarding ships in the Madeira register has been improved and response times have been shortened.

DGRM also informs that it has an ongoing global process of improving IT systems and simplifying procedures which, associated with the process of incorporating new people, will, by the end of 2017, show very significant results in the responses to customer requests. 

DGRM also informs that it has an ongoing process of global improvement of IT systems and simplification of procedures that, associated with the process of incorporating new people, will, until the end of 2017, show very significant results in the responses to customer requests.