Scope:

Evaluation of the Directive 2008/106/EC on the minimum level of training of seafarers, as amended and Directive 2005/45/EC on the mutual recognition of seafarers' certificates issued by the Member States

Evaluation findings:

The evaluation found that the Directives have to a great extent achieved their objectives. As an example, the mutual recognition of seafarer's certificates issued by the Member States has facilitated the mobility of seafarers in the Union. Only in 2015, more than 47.000 endorsements of Certificates of Competency issued initially by another Member State were valid in the Union, which represents around 25% of the total number of masters and officers available to work on-board the EU flagged vessels.

As regards efficiency, the introduction of the Directives reduced the administrative burden of Member States by avoiding multiple evaluations of the same third country by several national authorities. The cumulated costs that would have been accrued from 2005 to 2016 without the introduction of the common EU mechanism and the performance of the verification of compliance of third countries with the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (SCTW) Convention under a centralised system, has been estimated to be over €13 million. Finally, the mutual recognition of seafarers' certificates contributed to the simplification of the procedures for the recognition of their professional qualifications in comparison to the general legislative framework regulating the recognition of professional qualifications in EU.

Nevertheless, a number of aspects were identified that would require further intervention:
- the Directive on minimum level of trainings has to be aligned to the latest amendments of the STCW Convention;
- the obsolete definition of certificates recognised between the Member States under the mutual recognition scheme has to be updated. In this regard, a possible merger of the two Directives in the future can be considered;
- criteria for new recognition requests by the Member States and priority criteria for the re-assessment of the recognized third countries should be considered. The current legislative framework allows the submission of requests from the Member States for the recognition of third countries without any criteria or justification for such requests. That has led to some cases where the available financial and human resources were used inefficiently.
- the obligation of re-assessing the recognised third countries on a five year cycle has increased the burden on the available human and financial resources. Priority criteria for the re-assessment of third countries could increase the efficiency for managing EU recognitions.
- the deadline for the recognition of third countries should be reconsidered. The current deadline of 18 months is not realistic given that third countries require time to adopt and implement corrective actions in order to comply with the requirements stipulated by the STCW convention.

Which objective(s) does the Commission pursue?

The overarching objective of the proposed revision was 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.

Estimated savings and benefits

The analysis showed that significant simplification is possible through the repeal of Directive 2005/45/EC, and the alignment of Directive 2008/106/EC to the international framework.

The main element related to the increase of the efficiency is the revamping of the centralised mechanism for the recognition of the maritime education and certification systems of third countries. By introducing a discussion among the Member States on the need to recognise a new third country, the whole process will become more transparent in relation to the need to proceed with such a recognition. This would result to a more reasonable and efficient use of the available human and financial resources since a thorough consideration will take place in relation to the cost to be accrued by the recognition compared to the competitive advantage for the EU fleet by employing seafarers from the relevant third country.

In addition, the extension of the reassessment period for the already recognised third countries on the basis of defined priority criteria will release resources which are currently used in an inefficient way. In particular, the available resources will be redirected from countries which provide a low number of seafarers to the EU fleet and pose a minor safety threat to countries which shall be reassessed more often since they provide the highest proportion of the seafarers certified outside of the Union.

In this vein, the de-recognition of third countries, which for at least five years period have not provided any master or officer in the EU fleet, will release resources for the recognition of new third countries with more potential to supply labour on board the European vessels.

Outcome of Legislative Procedure

Certificate of excellency

The political agreement introduced a recital and a corresponding article under which the Commission would have to evaluate the impact of the mutual recognition scheme and the feasibility to propose a Maritime Diplomas of Excellence recognised on a voluntary basis by the Member States and based upon the conclusions reached by the blueprint undertaken by the social partners.

Compliance with Maritime Labour Convention and initiation of the process to recognize third countries

The final agreement introduces the consideration of the ratification or not of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) as an additional element for the third country recognition at the EU level.

Reassessment of third countries and withdrawal of recognition

In its initial proposal the Commission proposed to derecognise third countries from which there are no seafarers employed for a consecutive period of five years. The co-legislators have kept the spirit of the Commission’s proposal but have agreed on a period of 8 years at the end of which it would be possible to derecognise a third country which does not provide seafarers on the EU flagged ships instead of 5 years.

Estimated savings and benefits

It is not possible to estimate savings linked to the act as adopted by the legislators.