WRITTEN QUESTION E-0613/02

by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Council

(6 March 2002)

Subject: Training for fishermen

On 4 April 2001 the Commission submitted a communication to the Council and the European Parliament on the training and recruitment of seafarers(1). That communication aimed to provide a comprehensive study into the current situation as regards maritime education and training, describe the legislative and other measures already taken by the Commission and encourage the adoption of further measures to improve the situation both by the social partners in maritime transport and providers of maritime education and training.

Despite its title, this communication refers exclusively to people working in maritime transport and excludes the entire European fishing industry, despite the high number of workers it employs, the difficult conditions in which they work and their high accident rate.

Why did the Council not urge the Commission to include the fishing industry in this initiative?

Will the Spanish Council Presidency ask the Commission to submit an initiative rounding off that already presented and containing proposals for the training and recruitment of workers in the fishing industry?

(1) COM(2001) 188 final.

Reply

(27 June 2002)

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that the communication which the Commission submitted in April 2001 on the training and recruitment of seafarers is part of an overall strategy to increase the competitiveness of Community shipping, the need for which was stressed by the Council in its Resolution of 24 March 1997(1). That strategy focuses on shipping as a mode of transport and not on the fishing industry.

The distinction made between maritime transport and fisheries is common to the great majority of national, international and Community legislative instruments. In the various Conventions adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), as well as in the Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) adopted within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) framework, the term seafarers applies exclusively to the crew of vessels used for maritime transport and not to fishermen.

The same approach was in fact followed by the European Parliament and the Council when they adopted Directive 2001/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the minimum level of training of seafarers.

That instrument applies to: the seafarers [] serving on board seagoing ships flying the flag of a Member State, with the exception of:

- warships [],

- fishing vessels,

- pleasure yachts [],

- wooden ships of primitive build. (Article 2 scope).

Notwithstanding this general approach, as the Honourable Member is certainly aware, Council Regulation No 2792/1999 on Community structural assistance in the fisheries sector already foresees support for training of workers in the fishing industry. In Article 11, support for professional requalification or training is made part of the Community support for small-scale coastal fishing. Article 15(3)(k) allows for support to producer organisations for access to training, particularly in quality, and organisation of transmission of know-how on board vessels and on land, and finally in Article 17(1) training measures are also mentioned.

(1) OJ C 109, 8.4.1997, p. 1.