On 9 July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment in favour of the Commission pertaining to Case C-257/19, European Commission v Ireland. The case concerned the independence of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) in so far as its investigative work falls within the scope of Directive 2009/18/EC of 23 April 2009.
Directive 2009/18/EC established the fundamental principles governing the investigation of accidents in the maritime transport sector and applies to a small subset of the marine casualties that come within the remit of the MCIB.
The Court declared that by failing to provide for an investigative body which is independent in its organisation and decision-making of any party whose interests could conflict with the task entrusted to that investigative body, Ireland had failed to comply with its obligations under Article 8.1 of Directive 2009/18/EC. The issue was the presence of two Department of Transport officials on the Board of the MCIB. No fines against Ireland arose from the CJEU Judgment.
A number of legislative and administrative actions were taken to address the judgment, including the resignation of the two board members concerned and the amendment of the secondary legislation transposing the directive.
Subsequently, the Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine Casualties) (Amendment) Act 2022 facilitated a revised Board composition and the appointment of new members, removing the risks associated with the reduced board membership following the actions taken to address the judgment.
Formal notification of the closure of the infringement case was received from the Commission on 26 January 2023.
