What changed

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

– having regard to Rule 107(1) and (4) and Rule 117(7) of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the recommendation of the Committee on Legal Affairs (A100000/2026),(A10-0049/2026),

1. Gives its consent to the conclusion of the agreement;

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (the ‘Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships’ or ‘Beijingthe Convention’)‘Convention’) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 7, 2022. It establishes a harmonized regime for the international effects of judicial sales of ships. This means that when a ship is sold in a court-ordered sale (judicial sale), under certain conditions conferring "full title" (free from mortgages, liens, and encumbrances), the sale has the same legal effects in all Contracting States.

The Convention requires the ship registry to deregister or transfer the registration at the request of the buyer after such a sale. It prohibits the seizure of the ship for pre-existing claims extinguished by the sale and grants exclusive jurisdiction to the courts of the State where the judicial sale takes place to decide on objections to the sale (other States cannot initiate new proceedings).

Second, under the Convention, the courts of the State of sale have exclusive jurisdiction to hear appeals against the judicial sale. This means that other States where the ship may end up cannot re-examine the sale. For Member States, this limits their ability to protect local creditors or stakeholders (e.g., seafarers, tax authorities, suppliers, environmental regulators) who may have claims or interests if the ship is flying a different flag.

Third, uniform recognition of the "full title" in judicial sales could encourage operators to advocate for ship sales in jurisdictions with lax regulations or little oversight, knowing that the ship will be accepted everywhere. Over time, this could encourage "regulation shopping,"shopping", weak standards, and flag-of-convenience dynamics – which could undermine stricter regulations within Member States. It could also undermine labour standards, safety, and environmental compliance if judicial sales and re-registration become too easy and subject to minimal oversight.

Ways to mitigate these concerns could be to include a broad exception for government policy/registry policy, allowing a Member State to refuse recognition or transfer of registration if there are interests related to the registry or the public interest such as flagging, safety, environmental standards, labour, taxes, national security. This would ensure that the recognition of foreign judicial sales does not override national safeguards for the public interest and regulations, and prevents "regulation shopping".

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not include in his report input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.

PROCEDURE – COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Title

United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships

References

14882/2025 – C10-0321/2025 – 2025/0233(NLE)

Date of consultation or request for consent

27.11.2025

Committee(s) responsible

Date announced in plenary

JURI

18.12.2025

Rapporteurs

Date appointed

Ton Diepeveen

3.12.2025

Discussed in committee

28.1.2026

Date adopted

24.2.2026

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

22

0

0

Date tabled

10.3.2026

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL BY THE COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

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