Article 1 Definitions
For the purposes of this Directive: 1. ‘master’ means the person having command of a ship; 2. ‘officer’ means a member of the crew, other than the master, designated as such by national law or regulations or, in the absence of such designation, by collective agreement or custom; 3. ‘deck officer’ means an officer qualified in accordance with the provisions of Chapter II of Annex I; 4. ‘chief mate’ means the officer next in rank to the master upon whom the command of the ship will fall in the event of the incapacity of the master; 5. ‘engineer officer’ means an officer qualified in accordance with the provisions of Chapter III of Annex I; 6. ‘chief engineer officer’ means the senior engineer officer responsible for the mechanical propulsion and the operation and maintenance of the mechanical and electrical installations of the ship; 7. ‘second engineer officer’ means the engineer officer next in rank to the chief engineer officer upon whom the responsibility for the mechanical propulsion and the operation and maintenance of the mechanical and electrical installations of the ship will fall in the event of the incapacity of the chief engineer officer; 8. ‘assistant engineer officer’ means a person under training to become an engineer officer and designated as such by national law or regulations; 9. ‘radio operator’ means a person holding an appropriate certificate issued or recognised by the competent authorities under the provisions of the Radio Regulations; 10. ‘rating’ means a member of the ship’s crew other than the master or an officer; 11. ‘seagoing ship’ means a ship other than those which navigate exclusively in inland waters or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply; 12. ‘ship flying the flag of a Member State’ means a ship registered in and flying the flag of a Member State in accordance with its legislation; a ship not corresponding to this definition shall be regarded as a ship flying the flag of a third country; 13. ‘near-coastal voyages’ means voyages in the vicinity of a Member State as defined by that Member State; 14. ‘propulsion power’ means the total maximum continuous rated output power in kilowatts of all of a ship’s main propulsion machinery which appears on the ship’s certificate of registry or other official document; 15. ‘oil-tanker’ means a ship constructed and used for the carriage of petroleum and petroleum products in bulk; 16. ‘chemical tanker’ means a ship constructed or adapted and used for the carriage in bulk of any liquid product listed in Chapter 17 of the International Bulk Chemical Code, in its up-to-date version; 17. ‘liquefied-gas tanker’ means a ship constructed or adapted and used for the carriage in bulk of any liquefied gas or other product listed in Chapter 19 of the International Gas Carrier Code, in its up-to-date version; 18. ‘Radio Regulations’ means the revised radio regulations, adopted by the World Administrative Radio Conference for the Mobile Service in their up-to-date version; 19. ‘passenger ship’ means a seagoing ship which carries more than 12 passengers; 20. ‘fishing vessel’ shall mean a vessel used for catching fish or other living resources of the sea; 21. ‘STCW Convention’ means the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as it applies to the matters concerned taking into account the transitional provisions of Article VII and Regulation I/15 of the Convention and including, where appropriate, the applicable provisions of the STCW Code, all being applied in their up-to-date versions; 22. ‘radio duties’ includes, as appropriate, watchkeeping and technical maintenance and repairs conducted in accordance with the Radio Regulations, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS 74) and, at the discretion of each Member State, the relevant recommendations of the IMO, in their up-to-date versions; 23. ‘ro-ro passenger ship’ means a passenger ship with ro-ro cargo spaces or special-category spaces as defined in the SOLAS 74, in its up-to-date version; 24. ‘STCW Code’ means the Seafarers’ Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Code as adopted by Resolution 2 of the 1995 STCW Conference of Parties, in its up-to-date version; 25. ‘function’ means a group of tasks, duties and responsibilities, as specified in the STCW Code, necessary for ship operation, safety of life at sea or protection of the marine environment; 26. ‘company’ means the owner of the ship or any other organisation or person such as the manager or the bareboat charterer who has assumed the responsibility for operation of the ship from the shipowner and who, on assuming such responsibility, has agreed to take over all the duties and responsibilities imposed on the company by this Directive; 27. ‘appropriate certificate’ means a certificate issued and endorsed in accordance with this Directive and entitling the lawful holder thereof to serve in the capacity and perform the functions involved at the level of responsibility specified therein on a ship of the type, tonnage, power and means of propulsion concerned while engaged on the particular voyage concerned; 28. ‘seagoing service’ means service on board a ship relevant to the issue of a certificate or other qualification; 29. ‘approved’ means approved by a Member State in accordance with this Directive; 30. ‘third country’ means any country which is not a Member State; 31. ‘month’ means a calendar month or 30 days made up of periods of less than one month.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 1 Definitions):
For the purposes of this Directive: 1. ‘master’ means the person having command of a ship; 2. ‘officer’ means a member of the crew, other than the master, designated as such by national law or regulations or, in the absence of such designation, by collective agreement or custom; 3. ‘deck officer’ means an officer qualified in accordance with the provisions of Chapter II of Annex I; 4. ‘chief mate’ means the officer next in rank to the master upon whom the command of the ship will fall in the event of the incapacity of the master; 5. ‘engineer officer’ means an officer qualified in accordance with the provisions of Chapter III of Annex I; 6. ‘chief engineer officer’ means the senior engineer officer responsible for the mechanical propulsion and the operation and maintenance of the mechanical and electrical installations of the ship; 7. ‘second engineer officer’ means the engineer officer next in rank to the chief engineer officer upon whom the responsibility for the mechanical propulsion and the operation and maintenance of the mechanical and electrical installations of the ship will fall in the event of the incapacity of the chief engineer officer; 8. ‘assistant engineer officer’ means a person under training to become an engineer officer and designated as such by national law or regulations; 9. ‘radio operator’ means a person holding an appropriate certificate issued or recognised by the competent authorities under the provisions of the Radio Regulations; 10. ‘rating’ means a member of the ship’s crew other than the master or an officer; 11. ‘seagoing ship’ means a ship other than those which navigate exclusively in inland waters or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply; 12. ‘ship flying the flag of a Member State’ means a ship registered in and flying the flag of a Member State in accordance with its legislation; a ship not corresponding to this definition shall be regarded as a ship flying the flag of a third country; 13. ‘near-coastal voyages’ means voyages in the vicinity of a Member State as defined by that Member State; 14. ‘propulsion power’ means the total maximum continuous rated output power in kilowatts of all of a ship’s main propulsion machinery which appears on the ship’s certificate of registry or other official document; 15. ‘oil-tanker’ means a ship constructed and used for the carriage of petroleum and petroleum products in bulk; 16. ‘chemical tanker’ means a ship constructed or adapted and used for the carriage in bulk of any liquid product listed in Chapter 17 of the International Bulk Chemical Code, in its up-to-date version; 17. ‘liquefied-gas tanker’ means a ship constructed or adapted and used for the carriage in bulk of any liquefied gas or other product listed in Chapter 19 of the International Gas Carrier Code, in its up-to-date version; 18. ‘Radio Regulations’ means the radio regulations annexed to, or regarded as being annexed to, the International Telecommunication Convention, as amended; 19. ‘passenger ship’ means a ship as defined in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS 74), as amended; 20. ‘fishing vessel’ shall mean a vessel used for catching fish or other living resources of the sea; 21. ‘STCW Convention’ means the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as it applies to the matters concerned taking into account the transitional provisions of Article VII and Regulation I/15 of the Convention and including, where appropriate, the applicable provisions of the STCW Code, all being applied in their up-to-date versions; 22. ‘radio duties’ includes, as appropriate, watchkeeping and technical maintenance and repairs conducted in accordance with the Radio Regulations, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS 74) and, at the discretion of each Member State, the relevant recommendations of the IMO, in their up-to-date versions; 23. ‘ro-ro passenger ship’ means a passenger ship with ro-ro cargo spaces or special-category spaces as defined in the SOLAS 74, in its up-to-date version; 24. ‘STCW Code’ means the Seafarers’ Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Code as adopted by the 1995 Conference resolution 2, in its up-to-date version; 25. ‘function’ means a group of tasks, duties and responsibilities, as specified in the STCW Code, necessary for ship operation, safety of life at sea or protection of the marine environment; 26. ‘company’ means the owner of the ship or any other organisation or person such as the manager or the bareboat charterer who has assumed the responsibility for operation of the ship from the shipowner and who, on assuming such responsibility, has agreed to take over all the duties and responsibilities imposed on the company by this Directive; 28. ‘seagoing service’ means service on board a ship relevant to the issue or revalidation of a certificate of competency, certificate of proficiency or other qualification; 29. ‘approved’ means approved by a Member State in accordance with this Directive; 30. ‘third country’ means any country which is not a Member State; 31. ‘month’ means a calendar month or 30 days made up of periods of less than one month; 32. ‘GMDSS radio operator’ means a person qualified in accordance with Chapter IV of Annex I; 33. ‘ISPS Code’ means the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code adopted on 12 December 2002, by resolution 2 of the Conference of Contracting Governments to the SOLAS 74, in its up-to-date version; 34. ‘ship security officer’ means the person on board a ship, accountable to the master, designated by the company as responsible for the security of the ship including implementation and maintenance of the ship security plan and liaison with the company security officer and port facility security officers; 35. ‘security duties’ include all security tasks and duties on board ships as defined by Chapter XI/2 of the SOLAS 74, as amended, and by the ISPS Code; 36. ‘certificate of competency’ means a certificate issued and endorsed for masters, officers and GMDSS radio operators in accordance with Chapters II, III, IV or VII of Annex I, and entitling the lawful holder thereof to serve in the capacity and perform the functions involved at the level of responsibility specified therein; 37. ‘certificate of proficiency’ means a certificate, other than a certificate of competency, issued to a seafarer stating that the relevant requirements of training, competencies or sea-going service in this Directive have been met; 38. ‘documentary evidence’ means documentation, other than a certificate of competency or certificate of proficiency, used to establish that the relevant requirements in this Directive have been met; 39. ‘electro-technical officer’ means an officer qualified in accordance with Chapter III of Annex I; 40. ‘able seafarer deck’ means a rating qualified in accordance with Chapter II of Annex I; 41. ‘able seafarer engine’ means a rating qualified in accordance with Chapter III of Annex I; 42. ‘electro-technical rating’ means a rating qualified in accordance with Chapter III of Annex I.
Article 2 Scope
This Directive shall apply to the seafarers mentioned in this Directive serving on board seagoing ships flying the flag of a Member State with the exception of: (a) warships, naval auxiliaries or other ships owned or operated by a Member State and engaged only on government non-commercial service; (b) fishing vessels; (c) pleasure yachts not engaged in trade; (d) wooden ships of primitive build.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The importance of the human element for the safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment has been recognised at the Union level since the beginning of the 1990's 1 . Enhancing maritime education, training and certification of seafarers were considered particularly important elements to att ain a high level of safety. At EU level this was achieved through Directive 2008/106/EC, as amended 2 , by setting minimum training and education standards. This Directive integrates at the EU level the international framework on the training, certification and watchkeeping requirements for seafarers developed under the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and prescribed by the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended (STCW Convent ion). Directive 2008/106/EC also contains a common EU mechanism for the recognition of the systems of maritime education, training and certification of seafarers from third countries. In addition, it requires regular verification, by the Commission assisted by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), of compliance of the Member States and of third countries with the requirements of the Directive 2008/106/EC and STCW Convention, respectively. Fostering the professional mobility of seafarers within the EU, by f acilitating the mutual recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by the Member States, was the objective of Directive 2005/45/EC 3 . The Directive introduced a simplified procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by the Member State s. The purpose was to ensure that all seafarers, who are qualified in a Member State and hold such certificates, will be permitted to serve on board ships flying the flag of any Member State. An evaluation has been carried out and concluded that both Directives are fit for purpose and have met to a great extent the initial objectives and expectations. However, it also identified elements that have hindered the effectiveness and the efficiency of the legislative framework. This proposal aims to tackle the problematic issues identified. The overarching objective of this revision is therefore to simplify and streamline the existing EU regulatory framework on seafarers' training and certification in order to: i) keep the EU rules aligned with the international framework; ii) revamp the centralised mechanism for the recognition of third countries in order to increase its efficiency and effectiveness; and iii) increase legal clarity regarding the mutual recognition of seafarers certificates issued by the Member States.
Revised version (Article 2 Scope):
1. This Directive applies to the seafarers mentioned in this Directive serving on board seagoing ships flying the flag of a Member State with the exception of: (a) warships, naval auxiliaries or other ships owned or operated by a Member State and engaged only on government non-commercial service; (b) fishing vessels; (c) pleasure yachts not engaged in trade; (d) wooden ships of primitive build. 2. Article 5b applies to seafarers who hold a certificate issued by a Member State, regardless of their nationality.
Article 3 Training and certification
1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that seafarers serving on ships as referred to in Article 2 are trained as a minimum in accordance with the requirements of the STCW Convention, as laid down in Annex I to this Directive, and hold certificates as defined in Article 4 or appropriate certificates as defined in Article 1(27). 2. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that those crew members that must be certified in accordance with Regulation III/10.4 of the SOLAS 74 are trained and certificated in accordance with this Directive.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 3 Training and certification):
1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that seafarers serving on ships as referred to in Article 2 are trained as a minimum in accordance with the requirements of the STCW Convention, as laid down in Annex I to this Directive, and hold certificates as defined in points (36) and (37) of Article 1, and/or documentary evidence as defined in point (38) of Article 1. 2. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that those crew members that must be certified in accordance with Regulation III/10.4 of the SOLAS 74 are trained and certificated in accordance with this Directive.
Article 4 Certificate
A certificate shall be any valid document, by whatever name it may be known, issued by or under the authority of the competent authority of a Member State in accordance with Article 5 and with the requirements laid down in Annex I.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Article 5 Certificates and endorsements
1. Certificates shall be issued in accordance with Article 11. 2. Certificates for masters, officers and radio operators shall be endorsed by the Member State as prescribed in this Article. 3. Certificates shall be issued in accordance with Regulation I/2, paragraph 1, of the STCW Convention. 4. In respect of radio operators, Member States may: (a) include the additional knowledge required by the relevant regulations in the examination for the issue of a certificate complying with the Radio Regulations; or (b) issue a separate certificate indicating that the holder has the additional knowledge required by the relevant regulations. 5. At the discretion of a Member State endorsements may be incorporated in the format of the certificates being issued as provided for in section A-I/2 of the STCW Code. If so incorporated the form used shall be that set out in section A-I/2, paragraph 1. If issued otherwise, the form of endorsements used shall be that set out in paragraph 2 of that section. Endorsements shall be issued in accordance with Article VI, paragraph 2, of the STCW Convention. 6. A Member State which recognises a certificate under the procedure laid down in Article 19(2) shall endorse that certificate to attest its recognition. The form of the endorsement used shall be that set out in paragraph 3 of section A-I/2 of the STCW Code. 7. The endorsements referred to in paragraphs 5 and 6: (a) may be issued as separate documents; (b) shall each be assigned a unique number, other than endorsements attesting the issue of a certificate which may be assigned the same number as the certificate concerned, provided that that number is unique; and (c) shall each expire as soon as the certificate endorsed expires or is withdrawn, suspended or cancelled by the Member State or third country which issued them and, in any case, within five years of their date of issue. 8. The capacity in which the holder of a certificate is authorised to serve shall be identified in the form of endorsement in terms identical to those used in the applicable safe-manning requirements of the Member State concerned. 9. A Member State may use a format different from the format laid down in section A-I/2 of the STCW Code, provided that, as a minimum, the required information is provided in Roman characters and Arabic figures, taking account of the variations permitted under section A-I/2. 10. Subject to Article 19(7) any certificate required by this Directive shall be kept available in its original form on board the ship on which the holder is serving.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 5 Certificates of competency, certificates of proficiency and endorsements):
1. Member States shall ensure that certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency are issued only to candidates who comply with the requirements of this Article. 2. Certificates for masters, officers and radio operators shall be endorsed by the Member State as prescribed in this Article. 3. Certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency shall be issued in accordance with Regulation I/2, paragraph 3 of the Annex to the STCW Convention. 3a. Certificates of competency shall be issued only by the Member States, following verification of the authenticity and validity of any necessary documentary evidence and in accordance with the provisions laid down in this Article. 4. In respect of radio operators, Member States may: (a) include the additional knowledge required by the relevant regulations in the examination for the issue of a certificate complying with the Radio Regulations; or (b) issue a separate certificate indicating that the holder has the additional knowledge required by the relevant regulations. 5. At the discretion of a Member State endorsements may be incorporated in the format of the certificates being issued as provided for in section A-I/2 of the STCW Code. If so incorporated the form used shall be that set out in section A-I/2, paragraph 1. If issued otherwise, the form of endorsements used shall be that set out in paragraph 2 of that section. Endorsements shall be issued in accordance with Article VI, paragraph 2, of the STCW Convention. Endorsements attesting the issue of a certificate of competency and endorsements attesting a certificate of proficiency issued to masters and officers in accordance with the Regulations V/1-1 and V/1-2 of Annex I shall be issued only if all the requirements of the STCW Convention and this Directive have been complied with. 6 A Member State which recognises a certificate of competency, or a certificate of proficiency, issued to masters and officers in accordance with Regulations V/1-1 and V/1-2 of the Annex to the STCW Convention under the procedure laid down in Article 19(2) of this Directive shall endorse that certificate to attest its recognition only after ensuring the authenticity and validity of the certificate. The form of the endorsement used shall be that set out in paragraph 3 of Section A-I/2 of the STCW Code. 7. The endorsements referred to in paragraphs 5 and 6: (a) may be issued as separate documents; (b) shall be issued by Member States only; (c) shall each be assigned a unique number, except for endorsements attesting the issue of a certificate of competency, which may be assigned the same number as the certificate of competency concerned, provided that that number is unique; and (d) shall each expire as soon as the endorsed certificate of competency or certificate of proficiency issued to masters and officers in accordance with Regulations V/1-1 and V/1-2 of the Annex to the STCW Convention expires or is withdrawn, suspended or cancelled by the Member State or third country which issued it and, in any case, within five years of their date of issue. 8. The capacity in which the holder of a certificate is authorised to serve shall be identified in the form of endorsement in terms identical to those used in the applicable safe-manning requirements of the Member State concerned. 9. A Member State may use a format different from the format laid down in section A-I/2 of the STCW Code, provided that, as a minimum, the required information is provided in Roman characters and Arabic figures, taking account of the variations permitted under section A-I/2. 10. Subject to Article 19(7) any certificate required by this Directive shall be kept available in its original form on board the ship on which the holder is serving. 11. Candidates for certification shall provide satisfactory proof: (a) of their identity; (b) that their age is not less than that prescribed in the Regulations listed in Annex I relevant to the certificate of competency or certificate of proficiency applied for; (c) that they meet the standards of medical fitness, specified in Section A-I/9 of the STCW Code; (d) that they have completed the seagoing service and any related compulsory training prescribed in the Regulations listed in Annex I for the certificate of competency or certificate of proficiency applied for; and (e) that they meet the standards of competence prescribed in the Regulations listed in Annex I for the capacities, functions and levels that are to be identified in the endorsement of the certificate of competency. This paragraph shall not apply to recognition of endorsements under Regulation I/10 of the STCW Convention. 12. Each Member State shall undertake: (a) to maintain a register or registers of all certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency and endorsements for masters and officers and, where applicable, ratings which are issued, have expired or have been revalidated, suspended, cancelled or reported as lost or destroyed, as well as of dispensations issued; (b) to make available information on the status of certificates of competency, endorsements and dispensations to other Member States or other Parties to the STCW Convention and companies which request verification of the authenticity and validity of certificates of competency and/or certificates issued to masters and officers in accordance with Regulations V/1-1 and V/1-2 of Annex I produced to them by seafarers seeking recognition, under Regulation I/10 of the STCW Convention, or employment on board ship. 13. As of 1 January 2017, the information required to be available in accordance with point (b) of paragraph 12 shall be made available by electronic means.
Article 6 Training requirements
The training required pursuant to Article 3 shall be in a form appropriate to the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required by Annex I, in particular the use of life saving and fire-fighting equipment, and approved by the competent authority or body designated by each Member State.
Article 7 Principles governing near-coastal voyages
1. When defining near-coastal voyages Member States shall not impose training, experience or certification requirements on seafarers serving on board ships entitled to fly the flag of another Member State or another Party to the STCW Convention and engaged in such voyages in a manner resulting in more stringent requirements for such seafarers than for seafarers serving on board ships entitled to fly their own flag. In no case shall a Member State impose requirements in respect of seafarers serving on board ships flying the flag of another Member State or of another Party to the STCW Convention in excess of those of this Directive in respect of ships not engaged in near-coastal voyages. 2. With respect to ships entitled to fly the flag of a Member State regularly engaged in near-coastal voyages off the coast of another Member State or of another Party to the STCW Convention, the Member State the flag of which a ship is entitled to fly shall prescribe training, experience and certification requirements for seafarers serving on such ships at least equal to those of the Member State or the Party to the STCW Convention off the coast of which the ship is engaged, provided that they do not exceed the requirements of this Directive in respect of ships not engaged in near-coastal voyages. Seafarers serving on a ship which extends its voyage beyond what is defined as a near-coastal voyage by a Member State and enters waters not covered by that definition shall fulfil the appropriate requirements of this Directive. 3. A Member State may afford a ship which is entitled to fly its flag the benefits of the near-coastal voyage provisions of this Directive when it is regularly engaged off the coast of a non-Party to the STCW Convention on near-coastal voyages as defined by that Member State. 4. Upon deciding on the definition of near-coastal voyages and the conditions of education and training required thereof in accordance with the requirements of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3, Member States shall communicate to the Commission the details of the provisions they have adopted.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 7 Principles governing near-coastal voyages):
1. When defining near-coastal voyages Member States shall not impose training, experience or certification requirements on seafarers serving on board ships entitled to fly the flag of another Member State or another Party to the STCW Convention and engaged in such voyages in a manner resulting in more stringent requirements for such seafarers than for seafarers serving on board ships entitled to fly their own flag. In no case shall a Member State impose requirements in respect of seafarers serving on board ships flying the flag of another Member State or of another Party to the STCW Convention in excess of those of this Directive in respect of ships not engaged in near-coastal voyages. 1a. A Member State, for ships afforded the benefits of the near-coastal voyage provisions of the STCW Convention, which includes voyages off the coast of other Member States or of Parties to the STCW Convention within the limits of their near-coastal definition, shall enter into an undertaking with the Member States or Parties concerned specifying both the details of the trading areas involved and other relevant provisions. 2. With respect to ships entitled to fly the flag of a Member State regularly engaged in near-coastal voyages off the coast of another Member State or of another Party to the STCW Convention, the Member State the flag of which a ship is entitled to fly shall prescribe training, experience and certification requirements for seafarers serving on such ships at least equal to those of the Member State or the Party to the STCW Convention off the coast of which the ship is engaged, provided that they do not exceed the requirements of this Directive in respect of ships not engaged in near-coastal voyages. Seafarers serving on a ship which extends its voyage beyond what is defined as a near-coastal voyage by a Member State and enters waters not covered by that definition shall fulfil the appropriate requirements of this Directive. 3. A Member State may afford a ship which is entitled to fly its flag the benefits of the near-coastal voyage provisions of this Directive when it is regularly engaged off the coast of a non-Party to the STCW Convention on near-coastal voyages as defined by that Member State. 3a. The certificates of competency of seafarers issued by a Member State or a Party to the STCW Convention for its defined near-coastal voyage limits may be accepted by other Member States for service in their defined near-coastal voyage limits, provided the Member States or Parties concerned enter into an undertaking specifying the details of the trading areas involved and other relevant conditions thereof. 3b. Member States defining near-coastal voyages, in accordance with the requirements of this Article, shall: (a) meet the principles governing near-coastal voyages specified in Section A-I/3 of the STCW Code; (b) incorporate the near-coastal voyage limits in the endorsements issued pursuant to Article 5. 4. Upon deciding on the definition of near-coastal voyages and the conditions of education and training required thereof in accordance with the requirements of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3, Member States shall communicate to the Commission the details of the provisions they have adopted.
Article 8 Prevention of fraud and other unlawful practices
1. Member States shall take and enforce the appropriate measures to prevent fraud and other unlawful practices involving the certification process or certificates issued and endorsed by their competent authorities, and shall provide for penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. 2. Member States shall designate the national authorities competent to detect and combat fraud and other unlawful practices and exchange information with the competent authorities of other Member States and of third countries concerning the certification of seafarers. Member States shall forthwith inform the other Member States and the Commission of the details of such competent national authorities. Member States shall also forthwith inform any third countries with which they have entered into an undertaking in accordance with Regulation I/10, paragraph 1.2 of the STCW Convention of the details of such competent national authorities. 3. At the request of a host Member State, the competent authorities of another Member State shall provide written confirmation or denial of the authenticity of seafarers’ certificates, corresponding endorsements or any other documentary evidence of training issued in that other Member State.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 8 Prevention of fraud and other unlawful practices):
1. Member States shall take and enforce appropriate measures to prevent fraud and other unlawful practices involving certificates and endorsements issued, and shall provide for penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. 2. Member States shall designate the national authorities competent to detect and combat fraud and other unlawful practices and exchange information with the competent authorities of other Member States and of third countries concerning the certification of seafarers. Member States shall forthwith inform the other Member States and the Commission of the details of such competent national authorities. Member States shall also forthwith inform any third countries with which they have entered into an undertaking in accordance with Regulation I/10, paragraph 1.2 of the STCW Convention of the details of such competent national authorities. 3. At the request of a host Member State, the competent authorities of another Member State shall provide written confirmation or denial of the authenticity of seafarers’ certificates, corresponding endorsements or any other documentary evidence of training issued in that other Member State.
Article 9 Penalties or disciplinary measures
1. Member States shall establish processes and procedures for the impartial investigation of any reported incompetence, act or omission, that may pose a direct threat to safety of life or property at sea or to the marine environment, on the part of the holders of certificates or endorsements issued by that Member State in connection with their performance of duties relating to their certificates and for the withdrawal, suspension and cancellation of such certificates for such cause and for the prevention of fraud. 2. Each Member State shall prescribe penalties or disciplinary measures for cases in which the provisions of this national legislation giving effect to this Directive are not complied with in respect of ships entitled to fly its flag or of seafarers duly certificated by it. 3. In particular, such penalties or disciplinary measures shall be prescribed and enforced in cases in which: (a) a company or a master has engaged a person not holding a certificate as required by this Directive; (b) a master has allowed any function or service in any capacity which under this Directive must be performed by a person holding an appropriate certificate to be performed by a person not holding the required certificate, a valid dispensation or having the documentary proof required by Article 19(7); or (c) a person has obtained by fraud or forged documents an engagement to perform any function or serve in any capacity which under this Directive must be performed or fulfilled by a person holding a certificate or dispensation. 4. Member States within the jurisdiction of which any company which or any person who is believed on clear grounds to have been responsible for or to have knowledge of any apparent non-compliance with this Directive specified in paragraph 3, is located shall extend cooperation to any Member State or other Party to the STCW Convention which advises them of its intention to initiate proceedings under its jurisdiction.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 9 Penalties or disciplinary measures):
1. Member States shall establish processes and procedures for the impartial investigation of any reported incompetence, act, omission or compromise to security that may pose a direct threat to safety of life or property at sea or to the marine environment, on the part of the holders of certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency or endorsements issued by that Member State in connection with their performance of duties relating to their certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency and for the withdrawal, suspension and cancellation of such certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency for such cause and for the prevention of fraud. 2. Member States shall take and enforce appropriate measures to prevent fraud and other unlawful practices involving certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency and endorsements issued. 3. Penalties or disciplinary measures shall be prescribed and enforced in cases in which: (a) a company or a master has engaged a person not holding a certificate as required by this Directive; (b) a master has allowed any function or service in any capacity which under this Directive must be performed by a person holding an appropriate certificate to be performed by a person not holding the required certificate, a valid dispensation or having the documentary proof required by Article 19(7); or (c) a person has obtained by fraud or forged documents an engagement to perform any function or serve in any capacity which under this Directive must be performed or fulfilled by a person holding a certificate or dispensation. 4. Member States within the jurisdiction of which any company which or any person who is believed on clear grounds to have been responsible for or to have knowledge of any apparent non-compliance with this Directive specified in paragraph 3, is located shall extend cooperation to any Member State or other Party to the STCW Convention which advises them of its intention to initiate proceedings under its jurisdiction.
Article 10 Quality standards
1. Each Member State shall ensure that: (a) all training, assessment of competence, certification, endorsement and revalidation activities carried out by non-governmental agencies or entities under its authority are continuously monitored through a quality standards system to ensure the achievement of defined objectives, including those concerning the qualifications and experience of instructors and assessors; (b) where governmental agencies or entities perform such activities, there is a quality-standards system; (c) the education and training objectives and related quality standards of competence to be achieved are clearly defined and identify the levels of knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the examinations and assessments required under the STCW Convention; (d) the fields of application of the quality standards cover the administration of the certification systems, all training courses and programmes, examinations and assessments carried out by or under the authority of each Member State and the qualifications and experience required of instructors and assessors, having regard to the policies, systems, controls and internal quality-assurance reviews established to ensure achievement of the defined objectives. The objectives and related quality standards referred to in point (c) of the first subparagraph may be specified separately for different courses and training programmes and shall cover the administration of the certification system. 2. Member States shall also ensure that independent evaluations of the knowledge, understanding, skills and competence acquisition and assessment activities, and of the administration of the certification system, are conducted at intervals of not more than five years by qualified persons who are not themselves involved in the activities concerned in order to verify that: (a) all internal management control and monitoring measures and follow-up actions comply with planned arrangements and documental procedures and are effective in ensuring that the defined objectives are achieved; (b) the results of each independent evaluation are documented and brought to the attention of those responsible for the area evaluated; (c) timely action is taken to correct deficiencies. 3. A report relating to each evaluation carried out pursuant to paragraph 2 shall be communicated by the Member State concerned to the Commission within six months of the date of the evaluation.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 10 Quality standards):
1. Each Member State shall ensure that: (a) all training, assessment of competence, certification, including medical certification, endorsement and revalidation activities carried out by non-governmental agencies or entities under their authority are continuously monitored through a quality standards system to ensure the achievement of defined objectives, including those concerning the qualifications and experience of instructors and assessors, in accordance with Section A-I/8 of the STCW Code; (b) where governmental agencies or entities perform such activities, there is a quality standards system in accordance with Section A-I/8 of the STCW Code; (c) education and training objectives and related quality standards of competence to be achieved are clearly defined and that the levels of knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the examinations and assessments required under the STCW Convention are identified; (d) the fields of application of the quality standards cover the administration of the certification systems, all training courses and programmes, examinations and assessments carried out by or under the authority of each Member State and the qualifications and experience required of instructors and assessors, having regard to the policies, systems, controls and internal quality-assurance reviews established to ensure achievement of the defined objectives. The objectives and related quality standards referred to in point (c) of the first subparagraph may be specified separately for different courses and training programmes and shall cover the administration of the certification system. 2. Member States shall also ensure that independent evaluations of the knowledge, understanding, skills and competence acquisition and assessment activities, and of the administration of the certification system, are conducted at intervals of not more than five years by qualified persons who are not themselves involved in the activities concerned in order to verify that: (a) all internal management control and monitoring measures and follow-up actions comply with planned arrangements and documental procedures and are effective in ensuring that the defined objectives are achieved; (b) the results of each independent evaluation are documented and brought to the attention of those responsible for the area evaluated; (c) timely action is taken to correct deficiencies; (d) all applicable provisions of the STCW Convention and Code, including amendments are covered by the quality standards system. Member States may also include within this system the other applicable provisions of this Directive. 3. A report relating to each evaluation carried out pursuant to paragraph 2 shall be communicated by the Member State concerned to the Commission, in accordance with the format specified in Section A-I/7 of the STCW Code, within six months of the date of the evaluation.
Article 11 Medical standards — issue and registration of certificates
1. Member States shall establish standards of medical fitness for seafarers, particularly regarding eyesight and hearing. 2. Member States shall ensure that certificates are issued only to candidates who comply with the requirements of this Article. 3. Each candidate for certification shall provide satisfactory proof: (a) of his or her identity; (b) that his or her age is not less than that prescribed in the Regulations in Annex I relevant to the certificate applied for; (c) that he or she meets the standards of medical fitness, particularly regarding eyesight and hearing, established by the Member State and holds a valid document attesting to his or her medical fitness, issued by a duly qualified medical practitioner recognised by the competent authority of the Member State; (d) of having completed the seagoing service and any related compulsory training prescribed in the Regulations in Annex I for the certificate applied for; (e) that he or she meets the standards of competence prescribed in the Regulations in Annex I for the capacities, functions and levels that are to be identified in the endorsement to the certificate. 4. Each Member State shall undertake: (a) to maintain a register or registers of all certificates and endorsements for masters and officers and, as appropriate, ratings, which are issued, have expired or have been revalidated, suspended, cancelled or reported lost or destroyed and of dispensations issued; (b) to make available information on the status of such certificates, endorsements and dispensations to other Member States or other Parties to the STCW Convention and companies which request verification of the authenticity and validity of certificates produced to them by seafarers seeking recognition of their certificates or employment on board ship.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 11 Medical standards):
1. Each Member State shall establish standards of medical fitness for seafarers and procedures for the issue of a medical certificate in accordance with this Article and Section A-I/9 of the STCW Code, taking into account, as appropriate, Section B-I/9 of the STCW Code. 2. Each Member State shall ensure that those responsible for assessing the medical fitness of seafarers are medical practitioners recognised by that Member State for the purpose of seafarer medical examinations, in accordance with the Section A-I/9 of the STCW Code. 3. Every seafarer holding a certificate of competency or a certificate of proficiency, issued under the provisions of the STCW Convention, who is serving at sea shall also hold a valid medical certificate issued in accordance with this Article and Section A-I/9 of the STCW Code. 4. Candidates for medical certification shall: (a) be not less than 16 years of age; (b) provide satisfactory proof of their identity; and (c) meet the applicable medical fitness standards established by the Member State concerned. 5. Medical certificates shall remain valid for a maximum period of two years unless the seafarer is under the age of 18, in which case the maximum period of validity shall be one year. 6. If the period of validity of a medical certificate expires in the course of a voyage, Regulation I/9 of the Annex to the STCW Convention shall apply. 7. In urgent cases, a Member State may permit a seafarer to work without a valid medical certificate. In such cases, Regulation I/9 of the Annex to the STCW Convention shall apply.
Article 12 Revalidation of certificates
1. Every master, officer and radio operator holding a certificate issued or recognised under any chapter of Annex I other than Chapter VI who is serving at sea or intends to return to sea after a period ashore shall, in order to continue to qualify for seagoing service, be required at intervals not exceeding five years: (a) to meet the standards of medical fitness prescribed by Article 11; and (b) to establish continued professional competence in accordance with section A-I/11 of the STCW Code. 2. Every master, officer and radio operator shall, for continuing seagoing service on board ships for which special training requirements have been internationally agreed upon, successfully complete approved relevant training. 3. Each Member State shall compare the standards of competence which are required of candidates for certificates issued before 1 February 2002 with those specified for the appropriate certificate in Part A of the STCW Code, and shall determine the need to require the holders of such certificates to undergo appropriate refresher and updating training or assessment. Refresher and updating courses shall be approved and include changes in relevant national and international regulations concerning the safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment and take account of any updating of the standard of competency concerned. 4. Each Member State shall, in consultation with those concerned, formulate or promote the formulation of a structure of refresher and updating courses as provided for in section A-I/11 of the STCW Code. 5. For the purpose of updating the knowledge of masters, officers and radio operators, each Member State shall ensure that the texts of recent changes in national and international regulations concerning the safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment are made available to ships entitled to fly its flag.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 12 Revalidation of certificates of competency and certificates of proficiency):
1. Every master, officer and radio operator holding a certificate issued or recognised under any chapter of Annex I other than Chapter VI who is serving at sea or intends to return to sea after a period ashore shall, in order to continue to qualify for seagoing service, be required at intervals not exceeding five years: (a) to meet the standards of medical fitness prescribed by Article 11; and (b) to establish continued professional competence in accordance with section A-I/11 of the STCW Code. 2. Every master, officer and radio operator shall, for continuing seagoing service on board ships for which special training requirements have been internationally agreed upon, successfully complete approved relevant training. 2a. Every master and officer shall, for continuing seagoing service on board tankers, meet the requirements of paragraph 1 of this Article and be required, at intervals not exceeding five years, to establish continued professional competence for tankers in accordance with paragraph 3 of Section A-I/11 of the STCW Code. 3. Each Member State shall compare the standards of competence which are required of candidates for certificates of competency issued until 1 January 2017 with those specified for the relevant certificate of competency in Part A of the STCW Code, and shall determine the need to require the holders of such certificates of competency to undergo appropriate refresher and updating training or assessment. 4. Each Member State shall, in consultation with those concerned, formulate or promote the formulation of a structure of refresher and updating courses as provided for in section A-I/11 of the STCW Code. 5. For the purpose of updating the knowledge of masters, officers and radio operators, each Member State shall ensure that the texts of recent changes in national and international regulations concerning the safety of life at sea, security and the protection of the marine environment are made available to ships entitled to fly its flag, while respecting point (b) of Article 14(3) and Article 18.
Article 13 Use of simulators
1. The performance standards and other provisions set out in section A-I/12 of the STCW Code and such other requirements as are prescribed in Part A of the STCW Code for any certificate concerned shall be complied with in respect of: (a) all mandatory simulator-based training; (b) any assessment of competence required by Part A of the STCW Code which is carried out by means of a simulator; (c) any demonstration, by means of a simulator, of continued proficiency required by Part A of the STCW Code. 2. Simulators installed or brought into use before 1 February 2002 may be exempted from full compliance with the performance standards referred to in paragraph 1 at the discretion of each Member State.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 13 Use of simulators):
1. The performance standards and other provisions set out in section A-I/12 of the STCW Code and such other requirements as are prescribed in Part A of the STCW Code for any certificate concerned shall be complied with in respect of: (a) all mandatory simulator-based training; (b) any assessment of competence required by Part A of the STCW Code which is carried out by means of a simulator; (c) any demonstration, by means of a simulator, of continued proficiency required by Part A of the STCW Code.
Article 14 Responsibilities of companies
1. In accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 Member States shall hold companies responsible for the assignment of seafarers for service in their ships in accordance with this Directive, and shall require every company to ensure that: (a) each seafarer assigned to any of its ships holds an appropriate certificate in accordance with the provisions of this Directive and as established by the Member State; (b) its ships are manned in accordance with the applicable safe-manning requirements of the Member State; (c) documentation and data relevant to all seafarers employed on its ships are maintained and readily accessible, and include, without being limited to, documentation and data on their experience, training, medical fitness and competence in assigned duties; (d) on being assigned to any of its ships seafarers are familiarised with their specific duties and with all ship arrangements, installations, equipment, procedures, and ship characteristics that are relevant to their routine or emergency duties; (e) the ship’s complement can effectively coordinate their activities in an emergency situation and in performing functions vital to safety or to the prevention or mitigation of pollution. 2. Companies, masters and crew members shall each have responsibility for ensuring that the obligations set out in this Article are given full and complete effect and that such other measures as may be necessary are taken to ensure that each crew member can make a knowledgeable and informed contribution to the safe operation of the ship. 3. The company shall provide written instructions to the master of each ship to which this Directive applies, setting out the policies and the procedures to be followed to ensure that all seafarers who are newly employed on board the ship are given a reasonable opportunity to become familiar with the shipboard equipment, operating procedures and other arrangements needed for the proper performance of their duties, before being assigned to those duties. Such policies and procedures shall include: (a) the allocation of a reasonable period of time during which each newly employed seafarer will have an opportunity to become acquainted with: (i) the specific equipment the seafarer will be using or operating; and (ii) ship-specific watchkeeping, safety, environmental protection and emergency procedures and arrangements the seafarer needs to know to perform the assigned duties properly; (b) the designation of a knowledgeable crew member who will be responsible for ensuring that each newly employed seafarer is given an opportunity to receive essential information in a language the seafarer understands.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 14 Responsibilities of companies):
1. In accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 Member States shall hold companies responsible for the assignment of seafarers for service in their ships in accordance with this Directive, and shall require every company to ensure that: (a) each seafarer assigned to any of its ships holds an appropriate certificate in accordance with the provisions of this Directive and as established by the Member State; (b) its ships are manned in accordance with the applicable safe-manning requirements of the Member State; (c) documentation and data relevant to all seafarers employed on its ships are maintained and readily accessible, and include, without being limited to, documentation and data on their experience, training, medical fitness and competence in assigned duties; (d) on being assigned to any of its ships seafarers are familiarised with their specific duties and with all ship arrangements, installations, equipment, procedures, and ship characteristics that are relevant to their routine or emergency duties; (e) the ship’s complement can effectively coordinate their activities in an emergency situation and in performing functions vital to safety or to the prevention or mitigation of pollution; (f) seafarers assigned to any of its ships have received refresher and updating training as required by the STCW Convention; (g) at all times on board its ships there shall be effective oral communication in accordance with paragraphs 3 and 4 of Chapter V of Regulation 14, of the SOLAS 74, as amended. 2. Companies, masters and crew members shall each have responsibility for ensuring that the obligations set out in this Article are given full and complete effect and that such other measures as may be necessary are taken to ensure that each crew member can make a knowledgeable and informed contribution to the safe operation of the ship. 3. The company shall provide written instructions to the master of each ship to which this Directive applies, setting out the policies and the procedures to be followed to ensure that all seafarers who are newly employed on board the ship are given a reasonable opportunity to become familiar with the shipboard equipment, operating procedures and other arrangements needed for the proper performance of their duties, before being assigned to those duties. Such policies and procedures shall include: (a) the allocation of a reasonable period of time during which each newly employed seafarer will have an opportunity to become acquainted with: (i) the specific equipment the seafarer will be using or operating; and (ii) ship-specific watchkeeping, safety, environmental protection and emergency procedures and arrangements the seafarer needs to know to perform the assigned duties properly; (a) the allocation of a reasonable period of time during which each newly employed seafarer will have an opportunity to become acquainted with: (i) the specific equipment the seafarer will be using or operating; and (ii) ship-specific watchkeeping, safety, environmental protection and emergency procedures and arrangements the seafarer needs to know to perform the assigned duties properly; (b) the designation of a knowledgeable crew member who will be responsible for ensuring that each newly employed seafarer is given an opportunity to receive essential information in a language the seafarer understands. 4. Companies shall ensure that masters, officers and other personnel assigned specific duties and responsibilities on board their ro-ro passenger ships shall have completed familiarisation training to attain the abilities that are appropriate to the capacity to be filled and duties and responsibilities to be taken up, taking into account the guidance given in Section B-I/14 of the STCW Code.
Article 15 Fitness for duty
1. For the purpose of preventing fatigue, Member States shall establish and enforce rest periods for watchkeeping personnel and require that watch systems are arranged in such a way that the efficiency of watchkeeping personnel is not impaired by fatigue and that duties are organised in such a way that the first watch at the start of a voyage and subsequent relieving watches are sufficiently rested and otherwise fit for duty. 2. All persons who are assigned duty as officer in charge of a watch or as a rating forming part of a watch shall be allowed at least 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour period. 3. The hours of rest may be divided into no more than two periods, one of which shall be at least six hours long. 4. The requirements for rest periods laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 need not be maintained in the event of an emergency or drill or in other overriding operational conditions. 5. Notwithstanding paragraphs 2 and 3, the minimum period of 10 hours may be reduced to not less than 6 consecutive hours provided that no such reduction shall extend beyond 2 days and at least 70 hours of rest are provided each 7-day period. 6. Member States shall require that watch schedules be posted where they are easily accessible.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 1.1. Summary The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) was concluded in 1978 among the State Parties to the IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN agency in charge of the international regulatory framework for shipping). The convention deals with the requirements for training of seafarers (mainly officers) and the relevant certification. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The Convention was integrated into Community law by Directive 94/58 on minimum training for seafarers[1]. As a matter of fact, the EU rules on maritime safety are largely aligned with international rules. Directive 94/58 was amended several times and eventually replaced by Directive 2001/25, in turn replaced by Directive 2008/106, currently in force[2]. Over time EU rules were modified, mainly in order to transpose the amendments to the STCW Convention, but also to develop and streamline a system for the recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU. Recognition of seafarers educated and trained outside the EU is in fact crucial in a business like shipping, globalized since forty years. Against this background, in 2007 the IMO launched a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention to which both the Commission and the Member States actively contributed and which was achieved with the adoption of a series of significant amendments, agreed upon by the State-parties at the Manila Conference on 25 June 2010. The Manila amendments to the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2012. From that date onwards maritime training will have to meet the new requirements. Since the EU Member States are also parties to the Convention, and none of them opposed the Manila amendments, they will have to adapt their legislation to the new text of the Convention. Also EU law should align with international rules, as it has been done so far and in order to avoid any conflict between the international and the EU obligations of the Member States. Alignment with international rules is precisely the objective of the present proposal, which also includes a few features aiming to take the opportunity of this legislative initiative to slightly streamline the STCW Directive. These features regard the introduction of a requirement for the Member States to provide already existing information concerning the certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes and the extension of an impracticable deadline from the procedure of recognition of third countries’ STCW systems. 1.2. The STCW Convention The international character of shipping is well known. It also results in crews being trained in different countries and under different systems operating onboard the same ship. In this respect it is crucial that all such crew members have the capacities needed to perform their duties in a safe manner. Training, in fact, plays an important role in maritime safety. For this reason in 1978, the Parties to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aiming to "promote safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment by establishing in common agreement international standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers" adopted the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers ("STCW Convention"), which entered into force in 1984. This Convention prescribes minimum standards which the State Parties are obliged to meet or exceed. As mentioned, the STCW Convention was significantly revised in 1995 and in 2010. As for the structure and content of the Convention, while the introductory articles contain the general principles and the provisions on entry into force and amendment procedures, its Technical Annex – composed of "Regulations" - contain the training, qualification and certification requirements for the different positions on ships (such as "captain", "first mate", etc.). Another annex to the Convention – the "Code" – contains in its Part "A" detailed tables with a precise description of the material skills (e.g., positioning, ship-manoeuvring, cargo-handling) that have to be learned by the candidates for the different positions onboard and tested by the competent bodies. Finally, Part "B" of the Code contains guidance on the implementation of the whole of the STCW rules. Part "B" of the Code is the sole part of the Convention which is not legally binding for the State parties. In this context the 2010 revision of the Convention aimed, on the one hand, to improve its existing provisions (for example, by enhancing the rules on fraud prevention and medical fitness standards) and, on the other hand, to update it with the latest technological developments. The Manila Amendments have also introduced a number of new features, such as training requirements for "able seafarers" and "electro-technical officers", which were not included in the former version of the Convention. 1.3. The STCW Directives Since they were introduced, the EU rules on training and certification of seafarers have had a twofold objective: · setting minimum common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, based on international standards; · ensure that seafarers working on EU-flagged ships and holding certificates issued by non-EU countries are properly trained. These two aspects are intertwined in the various directives that have followed the 1994 directive on minimum training for seafarers, which integrated for the first time the STCW Convention into EU law, the EU rules being afterwards amended as the STCW Convention was. Thus, Directive 94/58 was amended by Directive 98/35/EC transposing the 1995 amendments to the Convention, and subsequently replaced by Directive 2001/25 introducing a procedure for the recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by third countries. Three further amendments followed, introduced by Directive 2002/84 (defining the comitology procedure for the recognition of third country certificates), by Directive 2003/103 (providing for a new procedure for the recognition of third countries), by Directive 2005/23 (introducing requirements for seafarers serving onboard passenger ships) and by Directive 2005/45 (concerning the mutual recognition of certificates issued by Member States). Finally, Directive 2008/106 replaced Directive 2001/25, while introducing new elements concerning the comitology procedure. The main lines of this evolving legislative framework can be summarised as follows, taking into account the three policy objectives as indicated above: · Common standards for training of seafarers working on EU-flagged ships, have been laid down reproducing those set out in the STCW Convention. Such standards, once integrated into EU law and therefore become part of it, are interpreted and implemented according to EU law principles and, if necessary, enforced like any other EU law provision. Under the directive currently in force, if minor changes to the STCW Convention occur, the directive itself may be updated through a comitology procedure; if significant changes are introduced at an international level, a new directive is necessary to update the one in force, like in the present case. · Recognition of third countries. After the creation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Commission has acquired the support necessary to achieve an accurate knowledge of non-EU countries' systems of training and certification of seafarers. The Commission has therefore been entrusted with the assessment of such systems by Directive 2003/103. In particular, the Commission is in charge of assessing, with the support of EMSA whether third countries comply with the requirements of the STCW Convention. · The recognition of a third country, which has to be requested by a Member State, is carried out in the following way: at first, EMSA carries out an on the ground inspection of the maritime training and certification system and facilities in order to gather evidence regarding compliance with the standards of the STCW Convention; after that, on the basis of the findings of the inspection and the documents provided by the third country involved, the Commission Services gauge the STCW compliance of the system. The phase of assessment of compliance may entail a series of contacts with the involved third country, which may be willing to introduce adjustments to its legislation or practice to suit the Commission recommendations. The time needed for that depends on the nature and extent of those adjustments and the efforts made by the country in question. At the end of this process the Commission submits a draft decision (recognising the first country or withdrawing its recognition) to the Member States for their opinion, in the framework of a "comitology" procedure. The decision is finally adopted by the Commission and published in the Official Journal. The Commission recognition implies that Member States may recognise the certificates issued by the recognised country and that seafarers from that country will be entitled to work onboard the ships flying the flag of that Member State. Member States, however, are not obliged to recognise certificates from those countries, despite the recognition by the Commission. On the contrary, seafarers from non-recognised countries are not allowed to work on ships with an EU flag.
Revised version (Article 15 Fitness for duty):
1. For the purpose of preventing fatigue, Member States shall: (a) establish and enforce rest periods for watchkeeping personnel and those whose duties involve designated safety, security and prevention of pollution duties in accordance with paragraphs 3 to 13; (b) require that watch systems are arranged in such a way that the efficiency of watchkeeping personnel is not impaired by fatigue, and that duties are organised in such a way that the first watch at the start of a voyage and subsequent relieving watches are sufficiently rested and otherwise fit for duty. 2. Member States shall, for the purpose of preventing drug and alcohol abuse, ensure that adequate measures are established in accordance with the provisions laid down in this Article. 3. Member States shall take account of the danger posed by fatigue of seafarers, especially those whose duties involve the safe and secure operation of a ship. 4. All persons who are assigned duty as officer in charge of a watch or as a rating forming part of a watch, and those whose duties involve designated safety, prevention of pollution and security duties shall be provided with a rest period of not less than: (a) a minimum of 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour period; and (b) 77 hours in any seven-day period. 5. The hours of rest may be divided into no more than two periods, one of which shall be at least six hours in length, and the intervals between consecutive periods of rest shall not exceed 14 hours. 6. The requirements for rest periods laid down in paragraphs 4 and 5 need not be maintained in the case of an emergency or in other overriding operational conditions. Musters, firefighting and lifeboat drills, and drills prescribed by national laws and regulations and by international instruments, shall be conducted in a manner that minimises the disturbance of rest periods and does not induce fatigue. 7. Member States shall require that watch schedules be posted where they are easily accessible. The schedules shall be established in a standardised format in the working language or languages of the ship and in English. 8. When a seafarer is on call, such as when a machinery space is unattended, the seafarer shall have an adequate compensatory rest period if the normal period of rest is disturbed by call-outs to work. 9. Member States shall require that records of daily hours of rest of seafarers be maintained in a standardised format, in the working language or languages of the ship and in English, to allow monitoring and verification of compliance with this Article. Seafarers shall receive a copy of the records pertaining to them, which shall be endorsed by the master, or by a person authorised by the master, and by the seafarers. 10. Notwithstanding the rules laid down in paragraphs 3 to 9, the master of a ship shall be entitled to require a seafarer to perform any hours of work necessary for the immediate safety of the ship, persons on board or cargo, or for the purpose of giving assistance to other ships or persons in distress at sea. Accordingly, the master may suspend the schedule of hours of rest and require a seafarer to perform any hours of work necessary until the normal situation has been restored. As soon as practicable after the normal situation has been restored, the master shall ensure that any seafarers who have performed work in a scheduled rest period are provided with an adequate period of rest. 11. With due regard for the general principles of the protection of the health and safety of workers and in line with Directive 1999/63/EC Member States may, by means of national laws, regulations or a procedure for the competent authority, authorise or register collective agreements permitting exceptions to the required hours of rest set out in point (b) of paragraph 4 and in paragraph 5 of this Article provided that the rest period is no less than 70 hours in any seven-day period and respects the limits set out in paragraphs 12 and 13 of this Article. Such exceptions shall, as far as possible, follow the standards set out but may take account of more frequent or longer leave periods, or the granting of compensatory leave for watchkeeping seafarers or seafarers working on board ships on short voyages. Exceptions shall, as far as possible, take into account the guidance regarding prevention of fatigue laid down in Section B-VIII/1 of the STCW Code. Exceptions to the minimum hours of rest provided for in point (a) of paragraph 4 of this Article shall not be allowed. 12. Exceptions referred to in paragraph 11 to the weekly rest period provided for in point (b) of paragraph 4 shall not be allowed for more than two consecutive weeks. The intervals between two periods of exceptions on board shall not be less than twice the duration of the exception. 13. In the framework of possible exceptions to paragraph 5 referred to in paragraph 11, the minimum hours of rest in any 24-hour period provided for in point (a) of paragraph 4 may be divided into no more than three periods of rest, one of which shall be at least six hours in length and neither of the two other periods shall be less than one hour in length. The intervals between consecutive periods of rest shall not exceed 14 hours. Exceptions shall not extend beyond two 24-hour periods in any seven-day period. 14. Member States shall establish, for the purpose of preventing alcohol abuse, a limit of not greater than 0,05 % blood alcohol level (BAC) or 0,25 mg/l alcohol in the breath or a quantity of alcohol leading to such alcohol concentration for masters, officers and other seafarers while performing designated safety, security and marine environmental duties.
Article 16 Dispensation
1. In circumstances of exceptional necessity, competent authorities may, if in their opinion this does not cause danger to persons, property or the environment, issue a dispensation permitting a specified seafarer to serve in a specified ship for a specified period not exceeding six months in a capacity, other than that of the radio operator, except as provided by the relevant Radio Regulations, for which he or she does not hold the appropriate certificate, provided that the person to whom the dispensation is issued shall be adequately qualified to fill the vacant post in a safe manner to the satisfaction of the competent authorities. However, dispensations shall not be granted to a master or chief engineer officer, except in circumstances of force majeure and then only for the shortest possible period. 2. Any dispensation granted for a post shall be granted only to a person properly certificated to fill the post immediately below. Where certification of the post below is not required, a dispensation may be issued to a person whose qualification and experience are, in the opinion of the competent authorities, of a clear equivalence to the requirements for the post to be filled, provided that, if such a person holds no appropriate certificate, he or she shall be required to pass a test accepted by the competent authorities as demonstrating that such a dispensation may safely be issued. In addition, the competent authorities shall ensure that the post in question is filled by the holder of an appropriate certificate as soon as possible.