MED Directive & MarED
The mandatory safety equipment that must be carried on board each ship is defined at international level by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Equipment standards are set by different standardisation bodies, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and the IMO.
Through the Marine Equipment Directive 2014/90/EU, the European Union has acted to harmonise testing standards and certification for marine equipment in the EU. This is carried out by specialised entities, known as Notified Bodies.
EMSA supports the European Commission and EU Member States by coordinating an annual update of the list of relevant safety equipment and associated standards. EMSA also manages, at the request of the European Commission, the technical secretariat of the MarED group of Notified Bodies.
As part of this support, EMSA also manages the MED Portal which includes the list of approved products that can be carried on board EU Member State-flagged ships, and those of Iceland and Norway.
The MED Portal currently holds details of more than 200 000 marine equipment items and has more than 7 000 users worldwide. The portal gives industry a quick and reliable way to check the validity of certificates of marine equipment placed on the EU market.
