What must I report via the Maritime Single Window?

Short answer: You report all reporting formalities around a port call via the national single window (MNSW) of the Member State concerned. Thanks to the once-only principle you only have to submit the same data once.

What the reporting duty covers

Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 (EMSWe) concerns the reporting formalities around a port call. The principle is that all legally required data for such a call are submitted through a single channel, rather than scattered across separate authorities.

To make this work, EMSWe establishes a harmonised data set. That data set bundles the information belonging to a port call, so that the same terms and formats apply across all Member States. As a result you know which data are requested and in what form, regardless of the port the ship calls at.

Where you report it

You report via the national single window, the Maritime National Single Window (MNSW). Each maritime Member State provides such a single window as the central submission point for the reporting formalities around a port call. The single windows exchange information via SafeSeaNet.

Note the difference with a port community system. That is a local or commercial port platform, not a statutory single window. It may be operationally convenient, but the reporting duty under EMSWe runs through the MNSW.

The once-only principle

The practical heart of it is once-only: you only have to submit the same data once, instead of repeatedly to different authorities. That lowers the administrative burden for operators, agents and ports. Anyone still reporting multiple times is not fully using the benefits of EMSWe.

Read the main file: EMSWe — the maritime single window. Or take the Transport & Logistics scan.