Law no. 131(I) of 2004 on Merchant Shipping (Community Monitoring and Information System Regarding Vessel Traffic).

This Law aims at harmonising Cypriot legislation with the European Community Directive 2002/59/EC establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system, and concerns fishing vessels; marine casualties and accidents; dangerous goods, including solids and liquefied gases; inspection; coastal centre; port authority; polluting goods, including petroleum products, liquid toxic substances, harmful substances. This Law applies to the Cypriot ships of gross tonnage wherever situated and to the non-Cypriot ships within the territory of the Republic. The Law provides for: submission of information on vessels, surveillance and ship equipment, including: transmission of information prior to arrival at a port, entry of a ship into a ship reporting system zone, ship and fishing vessels equipment, vessel traffic management systems; obligations related to dangerous or pollutant goods on ships, including: obligations relating to delivery for carriage and loading, transmission of information about dangerous or polluting goods and related exemption; dangerous ships, marine incidents, adverse weather conditions, including: list of ships considered to present a potential danger to navigation or to pose a threat to safety at sea, the safety of persons or the environment, reporting of marine incidents and accidents, measures related to marine incidents and protection of the marine and coastal environment, measures taken in case of particularly adverse sea or weather conditions, measures in case of dangers from the existence of ice and risk to the safety of human life at sea or the protection of the maritime or coastal areas; obligations of competent authorities, including: European maritime information exchange system, obligations towards the European Union; powers of inspectors, procedure for taking binding measures by the Competent Authority, administrative fines, general criminal offences, power to make regulations.