The Paris MoU on port state control's committee has adopted a new flag state performance list, which take effect from 1 July and features a 16 ships on its “Black List”, down by two from the current list. The committee is also publishing a new performance list for Recognized Organizations, primarily classification societies.

A flag’s ranking is taken into account when targeting ships for inspection and ships flying flags listed on the “Black list” are liable for banning from the region after multiple detentions.

A statement says that s “hard core” of flag states remain on the “Black List” with the poorest performing flags remaining North Korea, Albania, and Bolivia. Taiwan, Turkey, Algeria and the Ukraine have moved from the “Black List” to the “Grey List” and “will hopefully manage to further enhance this improvement”. However Belize and Morocco moved back to the “Black List”. New on the “White List” are Estonia, Switzerland and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The committee adds: “Flag States with an average performance are shown on the “Grey List”. Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the “White List”. At the same time flag States at the lower end of the “Grey List” should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the “Black List” next year.”

A new table showing the performance of Recognized Organizations acting on behalf of flag states uses the same method of calculation as the flag state table but counts only those detentions, which the Paris MoU considers to be directly related to a statutory survey carried out by the recognised organisation.

Det Norske Veritas, Registro Italiano Navale and Germanischer Lloyd are the recognized organizations topping the list for 2006. The Register of Shipping, North Korea, The Register of Shipping, Albania, and the International Register of Shipping US are at the bottom of the list.