Classification societies are organizations that develop and apply technical standards for the design, construction, and survey of ships and which carry out surveys and inspections onboard ships. Flag states can authorize classification societies to act on their behalf to carry out statutory survey and certification work of their ships. Worldwide there are more than 50 classification societies but only 11 classification societies are presently recognized by the European Union. This recognition allows them to act as a recognized organization on behalf of EU Member States.

The EU Member States can only authorize a classification society recognized by the European Union.

the European Union legislation that deals with classification societies is Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 and Directive 2009/15/EC. The European Commission assesses each of the EU-recognized organizations once every two years. EMSA has been entrusted by the Commission with the task of carrying out the necessary inspections and therefore,

EMSA carries out a number of inspections of recognized organizations per year. These inspections include head offices and selected regional, field, and site offices and also include visits to ships for the purpose of verifying the performance of the recognized organizations. EMSA also carries out the necessary inspections of organizations for which recognition has been requested by a Member State.