Identifying stakeholder perceptions and realities of Paris MoU inspections

In the globalized maritime transport sector, with its preponderance of open registries, the controls implemented by the Port State Control should be rigorous but equitable. In this article, we present both stakeholder perceptions of these inspections (based on a questionnaire to which 343 people responded) and a descriptive analysis of real data, using information obtained from European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) and other regional and national databases. The homogeneity of results was evaluated by country, port and inspector profile based on certain indicators that we developed over the course of our work. The results show significant differences in the number of ships detained and deficiencies found at each port, including within the same maritime administration of the Paris MoU.