Month: August 2018

On Monday (3.09.2018), the Act of 5 July 2018 about tachographs, which aims to increase the safety of the tachograph system, comes into force. The Act introduces solutions limiting the ability to manipulate data registered by these devices, which will provide new rules for their installation, reparation and checking.

One of the new solutions is the control procedure in the case of a reasonable suspicion that the device has been connected to the tachograph. Then the officer of the inspection service (for instance, Road Transport Inspection) will be entitled to direct the vehicle to a workshop that meets the requirements set out in the Act, in order to check the actual connection of such a device. If tachographs are connected to a manipulative equipment, the costs related to checking the tachograph will be borne by the road haulier. If, on the other hand, such an operation is not confirmed during the inspection, the costs related to tachograph checking are paid by the competent voivod with regard to the place of control.

This Act will also amend the provisions of, among others, the Road Traffic Act, the Road Transport Act and the Driver’s Hours Act.

 

/AG/

The project has adopted new solutions aimed at improving the functioning of sea fisheries inspections and harmonizing the procedure and standards of their operation. One of the new solutions will be the appointment of the Chief Inspector of Sea Fisheries with the seat in Słupsk, which as a central government administration authority will be created in place of district inspectors of sea fisheries in Gdynia, Szczecin and Słupsk.

The project also extends the list of documents to be attached to the application for registration of a vessel in the Register of fishing vessels or to the application for changing the entry in the register. The new regulations are expected to enter into force as from 1 January 2019.

 

/AG/

In connection with New Zealand’s ratification of the MLI Convention (Multilateral Instrument to Modify Bilateral Tax Treaties), from January 2019 the regulations concerning the settlement of income earned by Polish seafarers from work with New Zealand shipowners will be amended. The method of avoiding double taxation will be changed from an exclusion method progressively to a proportional credit method.

 

/AG/

According to this amendment of the law, the Inland Navigation Administration will be reorganised, including the reduction of the number of central offices from the currently existing eight to only three – seated in Szczecin, Bydgoszcz and Wrocław. The other five offices will be converted into delegations.

This reform is related to the new tasks for Inland Navigation Administration provided by the Water Act of 20^th July 2017.

 

/JF/

The legal status of the Caspian Sea has been regulated on Sunday (12 August 2018), the summit of the Caspian countries signed the Convention regulating the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which since now, had been a complex political and legal problem in international relations. The Caspian Sea, by virtue of a signed document, is to have a special legal status, different from the status of the sea and lake. The regulation of the Convention is intended to create full jurisdiction for coastal States over raw materials under the seabed, which may be important for the global energy industry.

 

/AG/