The intention is that, as soon as there is agreement on the content, both the guideline and the code of conduct will be signed by all parties involved.
In a letter to the President of the House of Representatives by Minister Harbers on the Van der Plas motion and on the parliamentary questions of member De Hoop, the regulations for (night-time) transport on the Wadden Sea were extensively discussed. Based on the existing regulations, the main rule is that during the day on the Wadden Sea within the main waterways/ferry routes there is no speed limit, not even for water taxis.
Previously, there was no exception for water taxis to sail above the nightly maximum speed of 20 km/h around the Wadden Islands. Harbers of Infrastructure and Water Management wrote this in a letter to the House of Representatives, following a motion by Caroline van der Plas (BBB).
A speed limit applies to water taxis on these routes during the night hours. They are only allowed to sail here at night with a maximum speed of 20 km/h. The motion requests the cabinet to speed up consultations with water taxi companies and municipalities, among others, to look at expanding the list of exceptions and to look for solutions within the law in those consultations to maintain night-time water taxi services to the Wadden Islands. hold.
urgent task
All parties involved recognize the need to make exceptions in the event of incidents in the Wadden Sea or on the Wadden Islands and endorse the specification below. In the further elaboration of what is permitted in the event of incidents, emergencies and life-threatening situations, the starting point was that the task must be urgent.
A water taxi must remain available for the Wadden Islands all evening and night for situations where this is really necessary. That is the opinion of the five island municipalities, who asked the House of Representatives for support.
However, since there is no exhaustive list of what should be understood by an urgent task, the following concrete interpretation was given to this concept and thus to the exception provision from the traffic decree during the consultations. This includes urgent patient transport. This could include a life-threatening or deteriorating situation that requires immediate assistance from the relevant emergency services. Basic health care on one of the islands is under such pressure that it is necessary to divert to the mainland.
code of conduct
The further explanation of the exceptional situations, the applicable preconditions, and additional agreements about what the crew must comply with in those exceptional situations will be brought together in two documents that will be jointly drawn up by RWS, the Security Region, the Regional Ambulance Facility and water taxi companies. : a guideline and a code of conduct. Among other things, the guideline will deal with the exceptional cases in which speeds exceeding 20 km/h are permitted and the applicable conditions (skills and skipper training).
The code of conduct includes how exceptions are reported and what a skipper should pay attention to when sailing fast in terms of protecting nature and guaranteeing nautical safety. For example, the intention to sail quickly between sunset and sunrise must be reported to the regional control room/Central Meldpost Waddenzee (Brandaris). The skipper must make the proportionality of fast sailing plausible and must not endanger or unnecessarily hinder other waterway users.
