This Regulation establishes a framework for a technologically neutral and interoperable European Maritime Single Window environment (‘EMSWe’) with harmonised interfaces, in order to facilitate the electronic transmission of information in relation to reporting obligations for ships arriving at, staying in and departing from a Union port.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

1. (1)

   ‘European Maritime Single Window environment’ (‘EMSWe’) means the legal and technical framework for the electronic transmission of information in relation to reporting obligations for port calls in the Union, which consists of a network of maritime National Single Windows with harmonised reporting interfaces and includes data exchanges via SafeSeaNet and other relevant systems as well as common services for user registry and access management, addressing, ship identification, location codes and information on dangerous and polluting goods and on health;

2. (2)

   ‘ship’ means any seagoing vessel or craft operating in the marine environment that is subject to a particular reporting obligation listed in the Annex;

3. (3)

   ‘maritime National Single Window’ means a nationally established and operated technical platform for receiving, exchanging and forwarding electronically information to fulfil reporting obligations, which includes commonly defined management of access rights, a harmonised reporting interface module and a graphical user interface for communication with declarants, as well as links with the relevant authorities’ systems and databases at national and at Union level, which enables messages or acknowledgements covering the widest range of decisions taken by all of the participating relevant authorities to be communicated to declarants, and which could also allow, where applicable, for the connection with other reporting means;

4. (4)

   ‘harmonised reporting interface module’ means a middleware component of the maritime National Single Window through which information can be exchanged between the information system used by the declarant and the relevant maritime National Single Window;

5. (5)

   ‘reporting obligation’ means the information required by the Union and international legal acts listed in the Annex, as well as by the national legislation and requirements referred to in the Annex which has to be provided in connection with a port call;

6. (6)

   ‘port call’ means the arrival of a ship at, the stay of a ship in, and the departure of a ship from a maritime port in a Member State;

7. (7)

   ‘data element’ means the smallest unit of information which has a unique definition and precise technical characteristics such as format, length and character type;

8. (8)

   ‘EMSWe data set’ means the complete list of data elements stemming from reporting obligations;

9. (9)

   ‘graphical user interface’ means a web interface for two-way web-based user-to-system data submission to a maritime National Single Window, allowing declarants to enter data manually, inter alia, by means of harmonised digital spreadsheets and functions that enable reporting data elements to be extracted from those spreadsheets, as well as including common functionalities and features that ensure a common navigation flow and data upload experience for the declarants;

10. (10)

    ‘common addressing service’ means an additional voluntary service for declarants for initiating direct system-to-system data connections between the system of a declarant and the harmonised reporting interface module of the respective maritime National Single Window;

11. (11)

    ‘declarant’ means any natural or legal person who is subject to reporting obligations or any duly authorised natural or legal person acting on that person’s behalf within the limits of the relevant reporting obligation;

12. (12)

    ‘customs authorities’ means the authorities defined in point (1) of Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013;

13. (13)

    ‘data service provider’ means a natural or legal person who provides information and communication technology services to a declarant in relation to reporting obligations;

14. (14)

    ‘electronic transmission of information’ means the process of transmitting information that has been encoded digitally, using a revisable structured format which can be used directly for data storage and processing by computers;

15. (15)
    ‘provider of port services’ means any natural or legal person who provides one or more categories of the port services listed in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/352 of the European Parliament and of the Council13.