BACKGROUND
A longstanding problem in the shipping industry is the complexity and time involved in submitting reports when arriving in and departing from ports. Ship operators, masters, and agents are still burdened with having to fill in paper documents which include similar information and to distribute them to different government authorities, including port, maritime, safety, security, customs, border control, and health authorities. This increases costs and causes delays, reducing the competitiveness of maritime transport.
The National Single Window (NSW) aims to simplify this administrative burden by providing a place where all maritime information is reported once by ship data providers, at either national or port level, and made available to all relevant authorities. Certain parts will also be made available to other Member States via SafeSeaNet.