Seafarers' certificates: the Commission will send letters of formal notice to 11 Member States which have failed to transpose the rules on mobility and crew skills into their national law - Main contents

The European Commission has decided today to send a letter of formal notice to 11 Member States for failing to notify the Commission of the measures they have taken to transpose into their national law the directive on the recognition of seafarers' certificates^[1]. The Member States concerned are: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. In acknowledgement of the growing hardship affecting seafarers in many Member States since the 1980s, this directive for the first time introduces the automatic recognition of national certificates. It thereby aims to facilitate the mobility of Community seafarers between Member States.

It has three main objectives:

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  It provides for a careful and efficient procedure for the recognition by Member States of seafarers' certificates issued in the EU in accordance with existing Community provisions.
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  The directive provides for a regular audit of the national marine training and certification systems to ensure that the Member States fully respect existing standards of training and certification.
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  Lastly, it requires the Member States to put additional measures in place to prevent and combat fraudulent practices surrounding obtaining and issuing certificates.

The Member States should have transposed this directive into their national law by 20 October 2007.

^[1] Directive 2005/45/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the mutual recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by the Member States and amending Directive 2001/25/EC.