Background

Following the European Council Resolutions of 2 October 2007 and 9 December 2008, EU Member States decided to establish a European Union LRIT Cooperative Data Centre (EU LRIT CDC). The objective of the EU LRIT CDC is the identification and tracking of EU flagged ships. The main advantages are that all Member States can share a single LRIT information repository and a common interface to the International Data Exchange (IDE) for requesting LRIT information on ships flying non-EU flags.

The EU LRIT CDC has been operational since June 2009 in accordance with all IMO performance standards and requirements. The LRIT system is technically specified by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee document Resolution MSC 263(84) adopted on 16 May 2008. This revised the performance standards and functional requirements for the LRIT system (revoking MSC 210(81) and MSC 254(83)).