The port state organisation Paris MOU has published its annually revised lists over flag state inspection performance. The list is based on issued detentions in relation to the number of inspections on vessels registered in a flag state, in a three-year rolling scheme. Depending on the result, flag states are divided into a white, grey or black list, with high quality flags on the White List. This comprises 41 flags this year, with Bermuda in top, followed by France and the UK. Bermuda is a Red Ensign flag, a group of flag states, connected to the UK and with the right to call their ships British. There are five Red Ensign flags that may register ships with unlimited tonnage, in addition to Bermuda and the UK, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and Isle of Man, all on the White List.

Of the Baltic and North Sea flag states, Germany has the highest rank on the fifth place, followed by Luxembourg (6), Finland (7), Denmark (8), Sweden (9), Netherlands (12), Norway (18), Ireland (19), Belgium (22), Russia (31), Estonia (34) and Lithuania (37). At 42nd place Poland is on the Grey List, but just one place from the White List. With a positive trend, Latvia landed on the 44th place.

Noteworthy is that the US has dropped from the White List to the Grey and that the world's largest registry Panama remains on the Black List, and with a worse result than the year before, despite promises of quality enhancement. The Panama register comprises almost one fourth of the world's merchant fleet, measured in deadweight. Nothing has happened in the bottom of the Black List. The worst performers are still North Korea followed by landlocked Bolivia and Albania.