Enhancing European know-how and competitiveness through seafarers’ training
The last Trilogue on “Minimum level of training of seafarers”, took place yesterday.
The importance of the human element when it comes to safety at sea and the protection of the marine environment is recognized at EU level. Improving the education, training and certification of seafarers has been considered particularly important with a view to attaining a high level of safety.
This Directive aims to align EU maritime law with the international requirements of the STCW Convention, to simplify and increase the legal clarity concerning the current EU regulatory framework, in order to remove unnecessary barriers. The Parliament had the ambition as well to align the seafarers level of training and the recognition of training certificates with social and political evolutions at EU and international level, to ensure conditions for fair competition between Member States and third countries and to strengthen safety at sea and the protection of marine environment.
Our ALDE Rapporteur, Dominique RIQUET succeeded in introducing the concept of certificates in digital format, the ratification of the International Maritime Labour Convention as a requirement for the recognition of third countries and managed to ensure that the recognition procedure can be initiated swiftly, avoiding creating any administrative burdens on the European Maritime Safety Agency and Member States. Our Rapporteur eventually launched the idea of creating a central database of seafarers’ certificates, with a view to helping to bring down costs and making efficient use of human resources.
On the file, Riquet said:
“Our overarching aim is to ensure safety on board of EU ships and to enhance both the European and international competitiveness of our seafarers. To that end, we managed to introduce the concept of European Maritime Diplomas of Excellence, in order to develop European know-how and also to enhance the possibility of our seafarers to fully benefit from the opportunities provided by Erasmus+. One of our greatest achievements is to add an additional requirement for the recognition of a third country — the ratification of the International Maritime Labour Convention, with a view to ensuring minimum working standards for seafarers serving on ships flying the flags of Member States”.
More info: alde.eu
