The PMoU's white, grey and black lists classify the flags according to the number of inspections and arrests

The Committee of the Paris Memorandum for the Control of Ships by the Port State (PMOU) approved last May at its 49th annual meeting the results of the inspections carried out during 2015, which return Spain and Portugal to the white list from 1 July.

The PMoU's white, grey and black lists classify the flags according to the number of inspections and arrests of its vessels over the last three years, with a minimum of 30 inspections required. This year a total of 73 flags are present: 43 on the white list, 19 on the grey list and 11 on the black list. The first is Sweden, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and Norway. After having stayed on the White List for 10 years, Spain moved to the Grey List last year. However, thanks to the good results recorded in 2015, the Spanish flag is back on the White List.

The same report testifies that Spain remained in 2015, already for the eighth consecutive year, the PMoU Member State that carried out the most inspections: 1,716 (9.6% of the total of 17,858 inspections carried out by the PMoU in 2015), followed by Italy and the Netherlands, with 1,387 and 1,315 inspections respectively. It is clear that Spain carried out 24% more inspections than Italy.