Article 12

1. In exercising their inspection rights and obligations as port states: Member States shall ensure that ships flying a third State flag are not treated more favourably than ships entitled to fly the flag of a Member State. To this end the fact that the ship certificates and the class certificate are known to have been delivered by an organization which does not fulfil the criteria of the Annex, with the exception of organizations recognized in accordance with Article 4 (3) and (4), shall be taken as one of the primary criteria for selecting ships for inspection. Member States shall take appropriate measures when ships do not meet the internationally agreed standards and shall report to the Commission and the Secretariat of the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control the discovery of any issue of valid certificates by organizations acting on behalf of a flag State to a ship which does not fulfil the relevant requirements of the international conventions, or any failure of a ship carrying a valid class certificate and relating to items covered by that certificate. 2. Each Member State shall establish a performance record of the organizations acting on behalf of flag States. This performance record shall be updated yearly and distributed to the other Member States and the Commission.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-10 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.